Dehradun, Feb 11: Rising sprinter Animesh Kujur and star hurdler Jyothi Yarraji clinched the men’s and women’s 200m gold medals respectively to pick up their third and second yellow metal of the National Games on a day when 15 race walkers bettered the 26-year-old Games record in an unprecedented feat.
The 21-year-old Kujur, representing Odisha, added the 200m gold to his kitty of 100m and 4x100m relay titles he had won on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
His 200m gold-winning time of 20.58 seconds narrowly fell short of the National Games record of 20.55 seconds set by Amlan Borgohain of Assam in the 2022 edition in Gujarat.
Ragul Kumar G (21.06) and Nithin B (21.07), both from Tamil Nadu, took the silver and bronze respectively.
The 25-year-old Yarraji, representing Andhra Pradesh, won the women’s 200m gold with a time of 23.35 seconds to add to the 100m hurdles top prize she had won on Sunday.
Karnataka’s Unnathi Aiyappa (23.70 seconds) and Telangana’s Nithya Gandhe (23.76 seconds) took home the silver and bronze medals respectively.
A 100m hurdles specialist, Yarraji was the third athlete to clinch a second gold at the National Games. She had won a bronze in the 200m in the 2023 edition in Goa.
Delhi’s middle distance runner KM Chanda improved her own Games record in the women’s 800m. On her way to gold, Chanda clocked 2:00.82 to better her earlier record of 2:01.58 set in 2022.
It was a grand double for Chanda as she was also the winner of 1500m gold. It was also a hat-trick of gold medals for the Asian Championships silver medallist. She had won gold in the 2022 and 2023 editions of the National Games, thus emulating the feats of Yarraji (women’s 100m hurdles gold in 2022, 2023, 2025) and Tejas Shirse (men’s 110m hurdles gold in 2022, 2023, 2025) of Maharashtra.
Twinkle Chaudhary (2:03.46) and Amandeep Kaur (2:04.76), both from Punjab, pocketed the silver and bronze respectively.
Earlier in the morning session, all the nine competitors who finished the women’s 10km race walk bettered the earlier Games record set 26 years ago in an unprecedented result.
Eleven athletes started the race but two could not finish. National record holder Priyanka Goswami entered her name but did not start the race, which returned to the National Games for the first time after the 1999 edition in Manipur.
Haryana’s Ravina, who had won the National Inter-State and National Open Championships last year in 20km event, clinched the gold with a time 45.52 seconds, bettering the earlier Games record of 51.56 seconds set by Y Bala Devi of Manipur in the 1999 Games in Imphal.
All the other eight athletes who followed Ravina at the finish line also clocked better times than the earlier Games record of 51.56 seconds.
They are Shalini (46.12 seconds) of Uttarakhand, Munita Prajapati (46:23) of Uttar Pradesh, Mokavi Muthurathinam (46.23) of Tamil Nadu, Payal (47.36) of Uttarakhand, Reshma Patel (48.16) of Uttar Pradesh, Mansi Negi (48.32) of Uttarakhand, Sejal Singh (49.33) of Maharashtra and Monika (51.45) of Haryana. Only Ravina’s timing will, however, be considered as the new national record in the record books.
In the men’s 20km event, six competitors out of 10 who finished the race bettered the earlier Games record of 1 hour, 23 minutes and 26 seconds set by Gurmeet Singh of Jharkhand in the 2011 edition.
Servin Sebastian of Services, who won the 20km race walk event at the National Open Championships, took the gold with a personal best time of 1:21:23. His earlier personal best was 1:21:39.
Uttarakhand’s Suraj Panwar, who competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the marathon race walking mixed relay event along with Priyanka Goswami, took the silver with a time of 1:21:34, while Amanjot Singh of Punjab secured the bronze, clocking 1:21:42.
Paramjeet Singh Bisht of Services, who competed in the Paris Olympics 20km race walk event, was fourth with a time of 1:22:02. Ram Baboo of Uttar Pradesh, who won a bronze in mixed 35km race walk at the 2022 Asian Games, was fifth with 1:22:26, while Mukesh Nitharwal of Rajasthan was sixth with 1:22:52. (PTI)
Gujarat’s Vaidehi wins women’s singles gold in tennis
Dehradun, Feb 11: Gujarat’s Vaidehi Chaudhary won her second gold medal of the National Games as she claimed the women’s singles title after defeating Vaishnavi Adkar of Maharashtra in straight sets on the concluding day of tennis competitions here on Tuesday.
Vaidehi, who won the women’s doubles gold on Monday along with Zeel Desai, beat Vaishnavi 6-4, 6-4 in the singles summit clash at the Parade Ground tennis court.
Akanksha Nitture of Maharashtra and Amodini Naik of Karnataka won a bronze medal each.
The men’s singles gold went to Ishak Iqbal of Services who made a comeback after losing the first set to beat Gujarat’s Dev Javia 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) in the final. Manish Suresh Kumar of Tamil Nadu and Prajwal Dev of Karnataka pocketed a bronze medal each.
Tamil Nadu pair of Lohith Aksh Badrinath and Lakshmi Prabha Arun Kumar clinched the mixed doubles gold after defeating Karnataka’s Nikki K Poonacha and Soha Sadiq 6-4, 6-1 in the final. Haryana’s Sunil Kumar and Aditi Rawat, and West Bengal’s Nitin Kumar Sinha and Yubarani Banerjee took home a bronze medal each. (PTI)