KIYG MP Day 6: Haryana surge to top of medal tally

Adding icing to the cake, on a 10-gold day for the northern state was their young Javelin thrower Deepika, who created a new national youth record with a fling of 55.19m in the Girl's competition at the T.T. Nagar stadium in Bhopal. This was the Games second national youth record after the host state's Dev Kumar Meena had done so on Friday in the Boys' Pole Vault, on the opening day of track and field events. Maharashtra was lying second and hosts Madhya Pradesh (M.P) third, in the pecking order.

Boxing competitions also concluded at the T.T. Nagar stadium and Haryana showcased its strength in the sport, winning seven of the 20 golds on offer, besides winning a flurry of minor medals. They won three golds in the Boys weight categories including in the three heaviest categories where Sahil Chauhan (67-71kg), Deepak (71-75kg) and Nitesh Malik (75-80kg) won their final bouts in dominating fashion. While Sahil won by a unanimous 5-0 decision, the other two made the stop the contests in between. In the lighter categories, Manipur's boys won two golds, the first by Jadumani Singh in the 48-51kg flyweight category and the second by Chinglemba Moirangthem in the 60-63kg Light Welterweight category. The Haryana girls in-fact did better than the boys winning four of the 10 finals and here too Manipur was second best with two golds. Bhawana Sharma (45-48kg), Ravina (60-63kg), Priyanka (63-66kg) and Muskan (70-75kg) won the Girls' Boxing golds for Haryana.

Among the other sports which concluded their engagements on day six was Basketball at the Basketball complex in Indore, Track Cycling at the Cycling velodrome in Delhi and Gatka, at the District Sports Complex in Mandla.

In Indore, Rajasthan won the Boys Basketball gold in a fascinating final which kept everyone on the edge till the last minute. Rajasthan eventually took out Tamil Nadu 90-85. Punjab won the Girls' gold with a comparatively more comfortable 73-56 victory over Chhattisgarh. Hosts M.P. won the Girl's bronze while Chandigarh won the Boys' category bronze.

At the velodrome in Delhi, there were two Cycling medals to be won on the final day and the best track cyclists of the Games took those home. In the Keirin Boys, Luv Kumar Yadav (Rajasthan) won his fourth gold of the Games while in the Keirin Girls discipline West Bengal's Santi Biswas won her second of the Games. Sampath Pasamel (Karnataka) and Aashirwad Saxena (Telengana) won silver and bronze in the Boys' while Maharashtra's Sadnya Venkatesh Kokate and Pooja Danole won silver and bronze in the Girls' Keirin.

In Gatka at Mandla, Punjab displayed its prowess in the sport winning three of the four golds on offer.

On the second day of Athletics action, besides Deepika's national record, Haryana also picked up the gold in the Boys Hammer Throw with Prateek throwing the hammer to a distance of 69.47m. Tamil Nadu and Odisha also won two golds in Track and Field. Rathish Pandidurai of Tamil Nadu won the Boys 110m hurdles in a time of 13.72 secs while Abinaya Sri leapt 12.05m for the Girls' Triple Jump gold.

Odisha struck gold through Sabita Toppo in the Girls' 100m hurdles and the Boys' 4x100m relay. Hosts M.P. also won gold when Bushra Khan won the Girls' 3000m race and tiny Sikkim also picked up their first gold of the Games when Manoj Kami won the Boys' 3000m race at the T.T. Nagar stadium. Delhi's Anisha won the Girls' Discus Throw event, Maharashtra won the Girls' 4x100 relay and Telangana's Pranay Kothari won the Boys' Triple Jump with a jump of 14.95m.

Day six also saw the beginning of the Hockey competitions at Gwalior's M.P Women's Hockey Academy turf, with a total of eight matches on the schedule. In the Boys pool games, M.P defeated Uttar Pradesh (UP) 3-0, Jharkhand overwhelmed Bihar 6-1, Punjab beat Odisha 3-1 and the Haryana-Chandigarh game ended in a 1-1 stalemate. In the girl's games, Haryana defeated UP 3-2, Jharkhand were 5-0 winners over Mizoram, hosts M.P 6-0 winners over Punjab and Odisha won 2-0 against Manipur.

At the M.P. Shooting Academy range in Bhopal, Mukesh Nelavalli of Andhra defeated Rajasthan's Abhinav Choudhary 16-14 in a tight Boys 10m Air Pistol contest to win gold. Haryana's Shiva Narwal settled for bronze. Then in a Haryana 1-2, Divanshi pipped state-mate Palak 31-27 in the Girls 25m Pistol to strike gold.

In the Boys' Football group games being played at the Emerald Heights ground in Indore, Karnataka beat Odisha 3-1, while West Bengal drew 1-1 with Meghalaya. At Balaghat's football ground where the Girls' football competition is in progress, Manipur beat Haryana 4-1 and West Bengal ran out 7-1 winners over Bihar.

At the Laxmibai National Institute of Physical Education (LNIPE), Sara Rawool won the Girls All Round Artistic Gymnastics competition with Jinia Debnath and Soumili Karar of West Bengal taking the minor medals. In the Boys Artistic Gymnastics floor competition, Harschit D (UP) won gold, Aaryan Davande (Mah) won silver and Mann Kothari (Mah) won bronze. In the Boys Pommel Horse, Ghanshyam Billore (M.P) won gold, Jatin Kanojia (UP) took silver and Alok Kumar (UP) won bronze. Deepak Saini of Rajasthan took the Boys Still Rings gold while Aaryan Davande of Maharashtra won the Boys vault.

Day seven will see the commencement of Kabaddi competitions at the Abhay Prashal in Indore while the Athletics roster at the T.T. Nagar stadium has a total of 12 finals laid out, including that of the Boys and Girls 200m and 800m races. Gymnastic competitions will conclude at the LNIPE while Shooting will also have two more gold medals to win. Besides, group games of Football and Hockey also continue at their respective venues. (ANI)