Khelo India: Maharashtra increase tally to 60 golds

Assam's Shivangi Sarma added a fourth freestyle swimming gold medal to her collection at the Khelo India Youth Games 2020, winning the girls under-21 crown with much to spare but Maharashtra's all-round power across disciplines was just as impressive as nature's sound and light show that lit up the Assam capital on Sunday evening.

Just as thunder, lightning and rain left the city drenched, Maharashtra finished the day with a whopping 60 gold in their 193-medal haul. Yet, Shivangi Sarma celebrated her return to her hometown after training in Delhi over the past couple of years with an impressive fourth gold in 59.26 seconds. Kenisha Gupta (Maharashtra) won the under-17 race in a faster time.

Mihir Ambre, Rudranish Mishra and Aaron Fernandes helped Maharashtra make light of the five-second lead that India's best backstroke swimmer Srihari Nataraj opened up for Karnataka to win the 4x100m Medley Relay by 0.24 seconds. This dramatic win saw them finish the day with nine gold at the Dr. Zakir Hussain Aquatics Complex and inch close to Karnataka's 10.

Maharashtra's spoils got richer as the two under-17 Kho-kho teams, two wrestlers and three weight-lifters added to their gold collection on Sunday. Haryana, on the contrary, managed three gold through their wrestlers and watched their rivals enhance their lead at the top of the medals table.

Delhi's swimmers enjoyed a good day, winning three gold to help their State consolidate their position in the third place with 30 gold ahead of Uttar Pradesh's 23. With just one gold through 400m Freestyle swimmer, Aneesh S Gowda, Karnataka were unable to draw any closer to Uttar Pradesh.

Maharashtra's delight at the Bhogeswari Phukanani Indoor Stadium knew no bounds as Abhishek Nipane, a bronze medal winner in the under-21 73kg class in Pune last year, and Kiran Marathe, silver medallist a year ago, both improved on their performances to increase Maharashtra's collection of weight-lifting gold to eight out of the 18 contested so far.

Tamil Nadu's girls under-17 weight-lifters claimed two gold medals through Y Poorna Sri (64kg class) and M Lekhamaalya (71kg class), the latter having to hold her nerve through the climax to win by a 2kg margin. These medals saw Tamil Nadu rise to the sixth place with 13 gold and 25 silver in a total of 53 medals.

Assam are seventh on the charts with 13 gold and as many silver medals in a total of 40, leapfrogging several States like Gujarat, Kerala and Punjab in the matter of a day. As many as 13 States have touched double-figures in terms of gold medals won while 29 of the 36 teams taking part have won at least a medal each.

Assam claimed two of the four Lawn Bowls gold medals late on Saturday evening. Sanzio Pandey and Abhilakh Handique, who formed the home state's combination in the boys under-21 Pair event, and Suman Kumari Pandey and Suranjana Baruah, part of the girls under-21 Four squad, finished with two gold each.

Delhi girls Rajasvi Panver stunned Assam's Adinita Kakati 21-19 in the girls under-21 singles final with a telling show of precision play. Their contest was so enthralling that spectators stayed back till pretty late in the evening to watch them showcase their skills. The Jharkhand boys under-21 Triple squad claimed the other gold with a hard-fought win against Delhi.

The badminton competition at the Deshbhakta Tarun Ram Phookan Indoor Stadium saw a couple of upsets at the quarterfinal stage. Second-seeded Amit Rathore (Madhya Pradesh) was beaten by Govind Krishna (Kerala) in three games in the boys under-21 singles while Gujarat's Mir Tasnim Irfan Ali, also seeded second, lost in straight games to Harshita Agarwal (Chhattisgarh).

( With inputs from IANS )