Strong performance in Mallakhamb took Maharashtra to second place in medal tally after Army
Rupali, led by Sunil Gangawane, won three out of five gold medals in the Mallakhamb event of the Maharashtra National Games on Monday to reach the second position behind Army in the overall table. Maharashtra now has 34 gold and has pushed Haryana (32 gold) to the third position. Maharashtra has also won 26 silver and 56 bronze medals and has the highest number of 126 medals. Army is at the first position with 53 Gold, 33 Silver and 29 Bronze. Haryana has also completed 100 medals.
10 year old Shauryajit Khaire from Gujarat created history by winning bronze medal at Pol Mallakhamb. He has become the youngest player to win a medal in the National Games. Gujarat’s Pooja Patel teamed up with Komal Makwana to win her second gold medal in yoga asanas. The host state won both men’s and women’s bronze medals in soft tennis. Gujarat has so far won 43 medals which include 13 gold, 12 silver and 18 bronze medals.
Maharashtra’s Rupali performed brilliantly and won her third gold medal. She has achieved success in women’s ‘rope’ competition (9.25) today. Earlier, he had won gold in the individual all-round and team events. He also won a bronze medal in pole event. Siddhi Gupta of Madhya Pradesh won the gold in this category with a score of 9.10. Akshay Prakash Taral won the men’s all-round championship title.
He achieved double success by winning the rope competition by 8.95 points. Uttar Pradesh made a big difference by defeating Maharashtra in the semi-finals of men’s hockey. The winner was decided by a penalty shootout after the match was tied at 3-3. Uttar Pradesh will face Karnataka in the final. Karnataka beat Haryana 3-1 in the second semi-final. The softball competition at IIT Gandhinagar is also nearing its end. Men’s teams from Maharashtra and women’s teams from Punjab have made it to the finals.
In boxing, defending national champion Sumit Kundu, former World Championships medalist Jamuna Boro and Asian champion Sanjeet ensured medals by entering the semi-finals of their weight categories. Sumit of Sena, who made it to the quarter-finals of the World Championship, defeated Ankit Khatana of Haryana. Sumit managed to penetrate the defense of the South Asian Games gold medalist in all three rounds and won the men’s 75kg category by a unanimous decision.
Sumit will now face Nikhil Dubey of Maharashtra for a place in the final. In the quarterfinals, Nikhil defeated Bunty Singh of Delhi 5-0. Sanjeet defeated Harsh Kaushik of Delhi in the 92kg heavyweight category. In the women’s section, Jamuna Boro and Ankushita Boro of Assam dominated their matches and won their matches. Jamuna dominated all three rounds of the 57kg featherweight category against Rajasthan’s Sapna Sharma in the opening match of the day.
