India's historic gold-winning team members of the 2022 Commonwealth Games—Lovely Choubey and Rupa Tirkey—shone on the lawn bowls field, while Balraj Panwar strengthened his status as a top rower as star performers from minor sports grabbed the spotlight at the National Games here Wednesday.As the Games entered its halfway stage, Karnataka led the medal tally with 28 gold, 11 silver, and 15 bronze for a total haul of 54. Services, who added six gold to their kitty on Wednesday, bridged the gap with 27 gold, 10 silver, and 9 bronze for a total of 46.Madhya Pradesh moved up several notches to third with 34 medals (17 gold, 7 silver, 10 bronze). Maharashtra (16 gold, 35 silver, 31 bronze) and Haryana (12 gold, 19 silver, 20 bronze) rounded off the top five in the medal table.At the Water Sports Complex in Tehri, Paris Olympian Panwar, who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal at the Asian Games in China last year, defended his men's single scull gold. Panwar, born in Haryana but competing for Services here, clocked 7 minutes and 26.68 seconds to row past the 2km distance and take the first place.Navdeep Singh (7:41.17) of Uttarakhand and Guru Pratap Singh (8:04.01) of Maharashtra took the silver and bronze, respectively.The 25-year-old Indian Army rower, who is also a two-time national champion, had finished fourth in the men's single scull event in his maiden appearance at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, last year, clocking 7:01.27.He later qualified for the Paris Olympics, where he finished 23rd.
