Bhagalpur (Bihar), May 4: Maharashtra’s Tejal Rajendra Salve topped the charts in the girls’ compound qualifying round, scoring 697 points at the Khelo India Youth Games Archery competition here on Sunday.
She set the tone for Maharashtra archers to top ranking in three of the four events.
The archer from Jalna district, who has represented India in the 2024 Asia Cup in Suwon, South Korea, left her competitors well behind with a splendid score of 353 (out of 360) in the second half. Her teammates Vaidehi Hirachandra Jadhav (692) and Prithika (690) claimed the second and third place in the qualifiers.
Andhra Pradesh’s Kodandapani Thaurneesh Jathya got pole position in the boys’ recurve qualifying round with a total of 655, two points more than Meghalaya’s Devraj Mohapatra.
His first half haul of 332 points stood him in good stead, insuring him against a slide in the second when he shot 323. Dnyanesh Cherale (Maharashtra) behind in the third rank.
Defending champion Shubham Kumar from Bihar’s Bhojpur district, did not have the best day on the field, shooting 309 points in either half, to be ranked 14th among 16 athletes. However, he will draw strength from the fact that despite being 11th in qualifying round in Chennai last year, he went on to win gold.
Last year’s silver medalist Sharvari Somnath Shende (Maharashtra) was in a league of her own in the girls recurve qualifying round, shooting a score of 667 points.
The Punekar finished 13 points ahead of her team-mate Vaishnavi Baburao Pawar. Haryana’s Annu claimed the third rank with a score of 652.
Maharashtra’s Manav Ganeshrao Jadhav, who won the mixed team compound gold with Aditi Swami last year, topped the boys qualifying round with 713 points.
The archer from Amravati was tailed by Diwanshu Singh (Jharkhand) and Devansh Singh (Rajasthan), both of whom also breached the 700-point mark.
Volleyball
Meanwhile, on the opening day of volleyball competition in the Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna, Jammu and Kashmir overturned a 1-2 deficit to beat Uttarakhand 3-2 (18-25, 25-20, 16-25, 27-25, 15-9) in boys Group A and Gujarat beat Kerala 3-0 (25-12, 18-25, 25-18, 25-19) in girls Group B encounter.
In other girls matches, West Bengal beat Bihar 3-0 (25-9, 25-7, 25-9) in Group A and Tamil Nadu defeated Jharkhand 3-0 (25-13, 25-11, 25-7) in Group B.
Kabaddi
In Kabaddi, the Haryana boys’ team retained gold with a comfortable 57-30 victory over Karnataka after leading 28-14 at the half-time in the Rajgir Sports Complex.
However, defending champion Haryana girls’ team had to strain every sinew to keep Punjab at bay. It rode on the five-point first-half lead to win 33-32 despite a gallant attempt by Punjab. (PTI)
