Panaji, Nov 1: Karnataka’s 14-year-old swimming sensation, Dhinidhi Desinghu won her fourth gold medal of the 37th National Games, anchoring her team to the top spot in 4x200M Freestyle Relay at Campal Swimming Pool on Wednesday.
Sajan Praskash won his second gold medal winning the 200M Butterfly event with a new games record, stopping the clock 1:59.38.
Service’s SP Likith clinched gold in the Men’s 50M Breaststroke with a timing of 28.71 ahead of S Danush of Tamil Nadu (29.03) and Vidith S Shankar of Karnataka (29.07).
Chahat Arora (34.09) of Punjab defended her title in the Women’s 50M Breaststroke leaping ahead of Karnataka’s AK Linyesha (34.11). Harshitha Jayaram of Kerala won the bronze.
Karnataka 4x200M Freestyle relay teams in both men’s and women’s category won the gold creating new games records. In the 200M Butterfly event, Assam’s Astha Choudhury won the gold stopping the clock on 2:19.29 followed by Hashika Ramachandra of Karnataka (2:22.20) and Vritti Agarwal of Telangana (2:22.28).
At the Athletics Stadium in Bambolim, Seema of Himachal Pradesh completed the double by securing the gold in 5000M. She had clinched gold in 10000 M also. Ankit Kumar of Uttarakhand pipped Abhishek Pal and Gulveer Singh to won the gold in the men’s 10000M.
Andhra completed the relay double in the women’s category winning the gold medal ahead of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
In the men’s category, SSCB won the gold dipping ahead of Tamil Nadu who won the silver. Kerala won the bronze medal.
Earlier in the day, Services Sports Promotion Board (SSCB) rowers secured six gold medals which helped the defending champions to pull away from Haryana in the medal tally behind the runaway leaders Maharashtra.
Services increased their medal tally to 56 medals including 32 golds. Maharashtra lead the table with a total of 134 medals including 56 golds.
In the Rowing competition being held at the Chapora River, 12 finals were held on Wednesday.
Apart from SSCB who swept all golds in the men’s category, Madhya Pradesh won three gold medals in the women’s category, while Kerala won two and Haryana won the other gold.
In the men’s quadruple sculls event, Asian Games bronze medal winning team of Satnam Singh, Parminder Singh, Jakar Singh, Sukhmeet Singh of SSCB won gold. Another Asian Games bronze medal winning pair of Babulal Yadav and Lekh Ram won gold for SSCB in the Men’s Pair event. Olympians Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh of SSCB won gold in the Men’s Lightweight Double Scull Pair event.
At the Fatorda Multipurpose Stadium, India’s number one ranked player Ankita Raina guided Gujarat to gold in the Women’s team event.
In a match of heavyweights, Ankita beat Asian Games Gold medallist Rutuja Bhosale of Maharashtra 6-4, 6-2 to seal the gold medal for the state. Vaidehee Chaudhari had earlier beaten Vaishnavi Adkar 6-3, 6-0 to give Gujarat the lead in the match.
In the men’s category, Karnataka upset favourites Tamil Nadu 2-1 to clinch the gold. Manish Suresh Kumar gave the perfect start for Tamil Nadu beating Suraj Praboh in straight sets.
In the second singles, Asian Games medallist Ramkumar Ramnathan was stunned by Prajwal SD Dev as he was beaten 6-1, 6-1 in straight sets. In the deciding doubles rubber, Ojes Teja partnered Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan but the pair of Prajwal SD Dev and Adil Kayanpur beat them in straight sets to give Karnataka a well-earned gold medal.
At Colva Beach, Kerala beat Goa 7-5 to secure the first ever gold medal of Beach Football in the National Games. Lakshadweep won the bronze medal beating Punjab 4-2. (PTI)
