Chennai: Haryana clinched four of the five gold medals on offer in wrestling to close in on the second-placed Tamil Nadu, whereas Maharashtra weightlifter Arati Tatgunti and Andhra Pradesh’s AV Susmitha set new national youth records in the sixth Khelo India Youth Games, here on Saturday. Apart from setting the records, Tatgunti (girls 49kg) and Susmitha (girls 55kg) also won gold medals. In a three-way contest between Tatgunti, Soumya Dalvi (Maharashtra) and Panchami Sonowal (Assam), the former emerged victorious by lifting a total weight of 170kg, including 75 in snatch and 95 in Clean and Jerk, thereby creating new records in snatch, clean & jerk and overall.
The silver medallist Sonowal also improved on the earlier marks, forcing Arati to go for higher weights and the Maharashtra lifter executed her lifts with precision to hand her state a second gold medal of the day.
Sonowal, who had won the gold medal in the last edition, went for a 97kg lift in her last Clean and Jerk attempt to clinch the gold medal, but in the process injured her back and was taken to a hospital for scans.
Later, Susmitha set new overall record with a total lift of 173 kg. However, it was Haryana emerging as the biggest mover on the medals table. Monika (girls 46kg), Neha (girls 57kg), Amarjeet (boys 51kg Greco Roman) and Vinay (boys 92kg freestyle) clinched the gold medals while the state’s girls hockey team bagged its fifth consecutive title with a 1-0 win over Madhya Pradesh. Maharashtra remained atop medals table adding four more gold medals. Lifter Mahadev Vadar (boys 67kg), wrestler Samarth (boys 60kg GR) and swimmer Rutuja Rajadnya added a gold medal each to the state’s tally. Rajadnya became the fastest girls’ swimmer of the Games by winning the 50m freestyle race with a timing of 29.18 sec. Assam’s Jahnabi Kashyap and Subranshini Priyadarshini clinched the silver and bronze respectively. Jananjoy Jyoti Hazarika from Assam touched the wall with a timing of 25.53 sec to win the gold, whereas Salil Bhagwat of Maharashtra and Gujarat’s Heer Pitroda took the silver and bronze respectively. Earlier, cyclist Alanis Lilly Cubeleo from Kerala won the girls 60km individual road race while Chandigarh’s Jai Dogra topped the boys 30km time trial at ECR. West Bengal and Telangana added a gold medal each to their tally from the shooting range. West Bengal’s Ashmit Chatterjee bagged the 10m Air Rifle gold with a final score of 250.9 with Haryana’s Himanshu (250.6) and Manvendra Singh Shekhawant of Rajasthan (227.6) bagging the silver and bronze respectively. In the 25m Rapid Fire pistol event, Telangana’s K Tanishq Murlidhar Naidu scored 19 points to take the gold. Andhra Pradesh’s Mukhesh Nilavalli (18) and Maharashtra’s Swaraj Bhondave (16) won the silver and bronze medals respectively.
PTI

Press Trust of India