Maharashtra continue to rule in Khelo India, Haryana close gap

GUWAHATI: Last edition’s top place finishers Maharashtra continued to rule the Khelo India Youth Games, adding five more gold medals to their tally on the back of a strong show by their weightlifters, here on Thursday. Second-placed Haryana kept snapping at Maharashtra’s heels, picking up five gold, including two at the shooting range.

Maharashtra have a clear lead in terms of total medals (128) but their 34 gold may not be unbreachable, especially as the Games enter the last leg in which Haryana usually come into their own. Haryana have 28 gold at the moment and will hope to reclaim the top position in the standings that they had lost last year.

Delhi are in third place with 20 gold, with Uttar Pradesh just a gold and a position behind. Kerala remain in fifth with 13 gold.

The Karnataka cycling quartet

State

Maharashtra Haryana

Delhi

Uttar Pradesh Kerala

G 34 28 20 19 13

S 37 31 13 17 3

B Total 57 30 23 21 13 128 89 56 57 29

G-gold S-silver B-bronze of Danamma Chichakha, Sahana Kudiganur, Keerthi Ramaswamy and Meghna Gugad won the women’s U-21 team pursuit gold, fetching the only yellow medal for the southern state. Haryana’s 13-year-old Shiva Narwal, who claimed the sub-junior gold and third place in the Junior National Championships last month, was their top star as he won the boys U-17 10m air pistol gold.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands cyclists Celestina and David Beckham completed their respective individual double crowns. They took home eight medals, including five gold. Cycling is the only sport from which athletes from the island won medals, but Andaman and Nicobar are placed higher than states like Uttarakhand, Odisha and Jharkhand.

The cycling competition, held for the first time in the three editions of Khelo India Games, saw Maharashtra win 20 medals, nine of them gold. Manipur and Karnataka were the other teams with double-digit medals.

Maharashtra picked up three of the four gold medals on offer in weightlifting at the Bhogeswari Phukanani Indoor Stadium in Dispur. With a total lift of 134kg, Haryana’s Komal Kohar took the women’s U-21 45kg class title, a division that did not have any lifter from Maharashtra.

Mumbai’s Soumya Dalvi defended her girls U-17 40kg class gold. Her team-mate Aarati Tatgunti challenged her to lift at least 66kg on her last clean and jerk attempt to win gold which she easily did.