National Games: Mallakhambh heroes help Maharashtra reach second place in medal table
Maharashtra’s gold medal tally reaches to 34, leaving Haryana behind with 32 after a long and intense battle between the two states. Services are the current leaders
Maharashtra’s Mallakhambh stars, led by Rupali Sunil Gangwane, grabbed three of the five gold medals at stake to take the state to the second position at the National Games here on Monday. The windfall has increased Maharashtra’s gold medal tally to 34, leaving Haryana behind with 32 after a long and intense battle between the two states.
With a total of 126 medals, including 36 silver and 56 bronze, Maharashtra now has its largest haul in the Games. Services continue to lead the medal table with 53 gold, 33 silver and 29 bronze but has a lower aggregate of 115 medals. Haryana’s 32 gold, 30 silver and 38 bronze kept the state at the third spot.
In the final rush for medals, Gujarat’s boy wonder, 10-year-old Shauryajit Khaire, created history, becoming the youngest medallist of the Games when he clinched the bronze medal in Pole Mallakhamb. The hosts had another good day, with Pooja Patel teaming up with Komal Makwana to clinch her second Yogasana gold medal. They also picked up the men’s and women’s singles bronze medals in Soft Tennis to take their own medal tally to an impressive 43 (13 gold, 12 silver and 18 bronze) with two more days of competition left.
Maharashtra’s Rupali dished out a clinical performance to claim her third gold medal at the Sanskardham Sports Academy facility in Godhavi. She took top honours in the Women’s Rope competition (9.25 points) on Monday, to add to the Individual All-Around gold and team gold she had won on Sunday. She also won a bronze in the Pole competition to be among the handful of multiple medal winners in the Games. Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi Gupta took the Pole with 9.10 points.
Akshay Prakash Taral, the men’s All-Around champion, added a second gold to his collection by winning the Rope competition with 8.95 points. His team-mate Shubhankar Vinay Khawle scored 9.20 points on the Pole to win the other gold for Maharashtra,
preventing a Madhya Pradesh sweep There was massive disappointment for the Maharashtra men’s hockey team who were unable to make the most of their pre-match favourites tag against Uttar Pradesh in the semifinals at the Dhyan Chand Stadium in Rajkot. Maharashtra rallied from three goals down to take the match into the penalty shootout but ran out of luck there.
Karnataka will take on Uttar Pradesh in the final. Karnataka struck in the first and the fourth quarters to pull off a convincing 3-1 win over Haryana in the other semifinal. In boxing, reigning national champion Sumit Kundu, former world championship medallist Jamuna Boro and Asian champion Sanjeet earned berths in the medal rounds as the quarterfinal stage was completed at the Mahatma Mandir complex in Gandhinagar.
Sumit, a quarterfinalist at the world championships, beat Haryana’s Ankit Khatana in the men’s 75kg bout while Sanjeet used his long reach in the 92kg category to make short work of Delhi’s Harsh Kaushik. Assam’s Jamuna Boro registered dominant victory against Sapna Sharma (Rajasthan) in the 57kg class. Battling high fever for the past three days, Jamuna did not show any signs of fatigue in the ring as she registered a 5-0 win.
