Panaji, Nov 3: Sunil Joliya Jinabhai of Gujarat broke the Games record to clinch the gold medal in the men’s 3000m steeplechase event, while Karnataka swimmers Nina Venkatesh and Dhinidhi Desinghu extended their 100 per cent win record to claim their fifth yellow metal in the 37th National Games here on Friday.
Hosts Goa registered their best performance of the Games, winning six gold medals in sepaktakraw to climb up the standings chart, where top three positions remained unchanged.
Maharashtra continued to stay on the top of the table with a total of 162 medals including 60 golds, 49 silver and 53 bronze.
Services Sports Control Board is catching up with the leaders, taking their gold medal tally to 40 after some strong performances in combat sports. Haryana remains in third position with a total of 91 medals including 32 golds, 24 silvers and 35 bronze.
At the Athletics Stadium in Bambolim, Jinabhai finished the race with a timing of 8:37.15s to break the existing Games record of 8:43.05s in the name of Shankar Lal Swami, which was set in the last edition.
Asian Games medallist Vithya Ramraj of Tamil Nadu won the gold in the women’s 400m hurdles with a timing of 56.88s while Gujarat’s Dhaval Utekar bagged the yellow metal in the men’s category with a timing of 51.20s.
Preeti Lamba of Haryana secured the gold in the women’s 3000m steeplechase with a timing of 10:19.78s.
In the men’s Javelin, Asian Games silver medallist Kishore Kumar Jena had to be satisfied with a bronze. SSCB’s Shivpal Yadav and DP Manu won gold and silver respectively.
Upcoming Pooja won the gold in the women’s high jump with a best leap of 1.80m.
Vithya Ramraj dipped ahead of Jisna Mathew at the finish line to give Tamil Nadu the gold in the 4x400m mixed relay event ahead of Kerala.
At the Campal Swimming Pool, Karnataka’s young swimming stars Venkatesh and Desinghu guided their team to gold in the mixed team 4x100m freestyle relay. They now have five gold medals each with one more day of competition left.
Sajan Prakash of Kerala, Srihari Nataraj of Karnataka, Bhavya Sachdeva and Kushagra Rawat of Delhi won their third gold medals of the Games on a day where four more games records were broken in the pool.
Sagar Bhargava pipped state-mate and Paris 2024 Olympics quota winner Sarabjot Singh in a shoot-off, to win the first gold medal in shooting.
Haryana’s Sagar, competing in the men’s 10m air pistol, held his nerve to shoot a 10.2 in his shoot-off, as the India international settled for silver with a weak 9.3.
The two Haryanvis were tied at 238.8 at the end of the 24-shot final. Subhash Sihag of Services won bronze with 217.3.
Haryana continued their dominance in the wrestling mat, winning five out of the six gold medals on offer with Uttar Pradesh winning the other gold.
Olympian Deepika Kumari qualified for the final of the women’s recurve archery event after beating Haryana’s Tamanna 6-4 in the semifinal. She will face Sangeeta of Haryana. (PTI)
