PANCHKULA, Jun 9: Haryana picked up a gold each in weightlifting and shooting to negate Maharashtra’s success in athletics and maintain their lead in the Khelo India Youth Games here on Thursday.
Haryana’s twin triumphs more than compensated for Maharashtra’s three in sprint and two in swimming to keep them ahead with 33 gold medals, 27 silver and 36 bronze.
Maharashtra, the defending champions, have 31 gold, 28 silver and 23 bronze and stay in the second position.
However, the day belonged to Maharashtra’s sprinters, who sped to three out of the four gold medals for an impressive haul of eight golds, three silvers and a bronze in track and field events.
Sudeshna Shivankar was their star, clinching the girls 200m gold, well ahead of state-mate Avantika Narale to complete a hat-trick of sprint titles. She had run away with two gold medals earlier, first in the 100m and then in the 4x100m relay.
Madhya Pradesh’s Arjun Waskale completed a double, annexing the boys 3000m title in 8:37.62 after his exploits in the 1500m on the opening day of the competition.
Tamil Nadu’s Pradeep Senthilkumar (1:49.83) improved on N Sreekiran’s previous mark by almost a second to take the 800m gold ahead of Haryana’s Somnath Chauhan (1:51.63).
Jharkhand’s Supriti Kachhap also registered a new mark, clocking 9:46.14, in the girls 3000m version. The previous mark was held by Seema M (9:50.54).
Meanwhile, in swimming Annya Wala and Apeksha Fernandes raced to the gold medal in the 400m freestyle and 100m butterfly events respectively.
Elsewhere, Punjab set up a summit clash with Uttar Pradesh in the boy’s hockey final. Punjab hammered Jharkhand 3-0 in the semifinal while UP got better of Odisha 3-2 in a close encounter. (PTI)
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