JOIN USPrakash shoots gold; Malavika wins bronze
Commonwealth and Asian Games champion shooter Jitu Rai opened his campaign with two medals while records continued to tumble by a heap in the swimming competition but the mood turned sombre at the 35th National Games after a young netball player lost his life in a freak accident on the second day of the event here on Monday.
Services sprung to the top with 12 medals (8 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze), followed by Haryana (7 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze) and Madhya Pradesh (5 gold, 1 silver and 6 bronze).
Karnataka’s Prakash Nanjappa produced a brilliant performance to outwit the in-from Jitu and claim the gold in the men’s 50M pistol event. Prakash shot 190.1 to wear the yellow metal while Punjab’s Amanpreet Singh took silver with a score of 187.4. Favourite Jitu, struggling to cope with the heat, ended up with a bronze (168.1).
There was plenty of action for the second day running at the swimming pool. First up was the 1500M men’s event in which local favourite Sajan Prakash bagged the gold with a new meet record of 15:55.78. The silver was picked by Sourabh Sangvekar with a timing of 16:07.12, followed by West Bengal’s Sanu Debnath who clocked 16:27.91.
Another record sank in the 800M women’s event when Maharashtra’s Akankhsha Vohra clocked 9:15.30 to break the meet record by a second. Karnataka’s Malavika V (9:23.95) bagged the silver, while Maharshtra’s Monique Gandhi (9:29.93s) came third.
One more record tumbled when Sandeep Sejwal, representing Madhya Pradesh, breached his own mark to clinch the 200M men’s breastroke gold with a timing of 2:13.53. He was followed by the Kerala duo of Anoop Augustine (2:18.11) and Arun S (2:19.73).
Maharashtra broke their own meet record in the 4x100M women’s medley when the quartet of Monique, Aditi Dhumatkar, Avantika Chavan and Jyotsna Pansare pulled off a timing of 4:04.45.
In other swimming events, Gujarat’s 14-year-old sensation Kalyani Saxena snatched the 200m breaststroke gold by a whisker after clocking 2:47.22. Finishing close behind her were Maharashtra’s Rutuja Udeshi (2:47.47) and Saloni Dalal (2:47.49).
In the men’s 4x100m relay, the Madhya Pradesh won gold, Kerala took silver and Karnataka bronze.