National Games: Rupali Gangwane stars for Maharashtra in Mallakhambh, Manipur win women’s football

Maharashtra’s Mallakhambh stars, led by Rupali Sunil Gangwane, swept three of the five gold at stake on Monday to take the state to the second position on the 36th National Games medal table, ahead of Haryana for the first time in several days of competition.

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 giants.

With a total of 126 medals, including 36 silver and 56 bronze, Maharashtra have the largest haul in the Games. Services continue to lead with 53 gold, 33 silver and 29 bronze but have a lower aggregate of 115 medals. Haryana’s 32 gold, 30 silver and 38 bronze made them the third to touch the 100-medal mark.

In the final rush for medals, 10-year-old Shauryajit Khaire, created history for Gujarat by 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, including 13 gold, 12 silver and 18 bronze with two more days of competition left.

Rupali Gangawane dished out a clinical performance to claim her third gold medal at the stunning Sanskardham Sports Academy facility in Godhavi. She took top honours in the Women’s Rope competition (9.25 points) today, 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 Maj. 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. They struck in the first and the fourth quarters to pull off a convincing 3-1 win over Haryana in the other semifinal.

Abharan Sudev converted Karnataka’s first penalty corner in the fourth minute but Haryana hit back through Kohinoor Preet Singh in the 17th minute. After a barren third quarter, Karnataka scored through Nikkin Thimmaiah (47th minute) and Harish Mutagar (51st) to seal their place in the summit clash.

The Softball competition at the IIT Gandhinagar is also heading for a climax, with the Maharashtra Men’s and Punjab Women’s teams booking their place in the respective Grand Finals by beating squads from Chhattisgarh in the play-off games.

The Chhattisgarh teams will now feature in the qualifiers against second-placed finishers in the pools.

Andhra Pradesh who beat Delhi 4-0 in the men’s eliminator and Kerala, who edged out Maharashtra 4-3 in the women’s match will both hope to stun Chhattisgarh and earn themselves a crack at the gold medal in the respective Grand Finals.

Back on the Sabarmati, it was heartening to watch the experienced Rajina Kiro hold her own in the Women’s K1 500m sprint against Kaushal Nandini Thakur (Chhattisgarh) and Pooja (Haryana).

Ragasri Manogar Babu (Tamil Nadu) won the Soft Tennis Women’s singles gold with an easy win over Aadhya Tiwari (Madhya Pradesh). The Tamil Nadu player had to put her best foot forward in beating the home State’s Hetvee Chaudhari 1-4, 2-4, 4-1, 4-1, 1-4, 9-7, 7-0 in the semifinals. The Men’s singles crown went to Jay Meena (Madhya Pradesh).

Reigning National champion Sumit Kundu, former world championship medalist Jamuna Boro and Asian champion Sanjeet earned berths in the Boxing medal rounds as the quarterfinal stage was completed this evening 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.

Manipur defeat Odisha 2-0 to retain women’s football title

Manipur duly retained their National Games women’s football crown by beating Odisha 2-0 in the final at the Eka Arena Transstadia under floodlights here today. Both goals came in the first half.

It was a facile and expected win for the North Eastern state who have been dominating the National championships in the recent years.

Coached by the legendary midfielder Oinam Bembem Devi and led by ace India forward Ngangom Bala Devi, Manipur established an early stranglehold over the proceedings. Bala Devi was the fulcrum of Manipur’s attacking moves as she tried to set up the offensive action with her experience.

It was mostly a one-way traffic towards the Odisha goal with the four Manipur forwards peppering the rival target with a series of tries. Rival custodian Spandita Das confidently dealt with the regulation shots while some sailed over the crossbar or flew outside the posts. Manipur could also not capitalize on the succession of flag kicks they earned.

Attired in all red, the champions got their breakthrough in the 10th minute when Bala Devi, who tried to get herself into scoring positions with her twists and turns, found the mark with a shot from inside the box that brooked no stopping from Spandita Das.

International midfielder N Ratanbala Devi, who turns out for Gokulam Kerala in the Indian Women’s League, doubled the lead in the 36th minute when she bulged the net with a stiff grounder from a distance.

Coached from former Mohun Bagan player Crispin Chettri, Odisha showed greater resolve and cohesion in the second-half and manages some long-rangers. They earned a few corners which they could not turn to account. Though captain and central defender Manisa Panna tried to rally her troops, Odisha lacked a special player who could make the difference on the pitch

Late in the game, however, the Odisha attack sprang alive. Pyari Xaxa and substitute Satyabati Khadia forced Manipuri goalkeeper ML Devi to taste some action. She was equal to the task. Manipur then successfully ran down the clock to take the title back home.

The results (finals):

Canoeing and Kayaking
Men
K4 1000m Sprint: 1. Ajatasatru Sharma, S Albert Raj, Bhumjit Singh and Gyanjit Arambam (Services) 1:34.495; 2. Vishal Dangi, Akshit Baroi, Himanshu Tandon and Rimson Mairembam (Madhya Pradesh) 1:36.422; 3. Harsh Kumar, Mahendra Singh, Kunal and Ningthoujam Nivash Singh (Telangana) 1:389.168.
Women
C2 500m Sprint: 1. Meghna Pradeep and Akshaya Sunil (Kerala) 2:16.816; 2. Kaveri Dimar and Shivani Verma (Madhya Pradesh) 2:16.896; 2. Rashmita Sahoo and Sachima Kerketta (Odisha) 2:33.506.
K1 500m Sprint: 1. Rajina Kiro (Andaman & Nicobar) 2:08.652; 2. Kaushal Nandini Thakur (Chhattisgarh) 2:09.186; 3. Pooja (Haryana) 2:12.926.
K2 500m Sprint: 1. Fulmani Xaxa and Oinam Bindya Devi (Odisha) 2:07.443; 2. Jyoti and Pooja (Haryana) 2:09.446; 3. Rajina Kiro and Sandhya Kispota (Andaman & Nicobar) 2:10.806.
K4 500m Sprint: 1. Aleena Biju, Sreelakshmi Jayaprakash, Treesa Jacob and G Parvathi (Kerala) 1:56.259; 2. Dipali, Suahma Verma, Dimita Devi and Swati Sahu (Madhya Pradesh) 1:57.859; 3. Fulmani Xaxa, Oinam Bidya Devi, Pukharambam Roji Devi and Shruti Choughule (Odisha) 1:58.932.

Football
Women: Manipur beat Odisha 2-0 (Half-time 2-0). Bronze medal play-off: Tamil Nadu beat Assam 5-1 (Half-time: 3-1).

Judo
Men
Over 100kg class: Yash Ghanghas (Haryana) beat Sunil (Chandigarh). Bronze medals: Deepak Sharma (Haryana) and Dhyan Singh (Rajasthan).
Women
48kg class: Swaita Tokas (Delhi) beat L Sanatombi Devi (Manipur). Bronze medals: Taivitha Tariyal (Uttarakhand) and Malaprabha Jadhav (Karnataka).

Mallakhambh
Men
All-Around (Sunday’s result): 1. Akshay Prakash Taral (Maharashtra) 26.85 points; 2. Shubhankar Vinay Khawale (Maharashtra) 26.70; 3. Chandrashekhar Chauhan (Madhya Pradesh) 26.35.
Hanging: 1. Pranav Kori (Madhya Pradesh) and M Hemachandran (Tamil Nadu) 8.90 points; 3. Aditya Raje Kundariya (Uttar Pradesh) 8.75.
Pole: 1,. Shubhankar Vinay Khawle (Maharashtra) 9.20 points; 2. Deepak Waman Shinde (Maharashtra) 9.15; 3. Shauryajit Khaire (Gujarat) 9.10.
Rope: 1. Akshay Prakash Taral (Maharashtra) 8.95 points; 2. Rajveer Pawar (Madhya Pradesh) 8.90; 3. Chandrashekhar Chauhan (Madhya Pradesh) 8.85.
Women
Team: 1. Maharashtra 88.75 points; 2, Madhya Pradesh 83.10; 3. Chhattisgarh 80.10.
All-Around: 1. Rupali Sunil Gangawane (Maharashtra) 17.80 points; 2. Janhavi Suresh Jadhav (Maharashtra) 17.30; 3. Sidhi Gupta (Madhya Pradesh) 17.20.
Rope: 1. Rupali Sunil Gangawane (Maharashtra) 9.25 points; 2. Sidhi Gupta (Madhya Pradesh) 9.20; 3. Neha Sunil Kshirasagar (Maharashtra) 9.05.
Pole: 1. Sidhi Gupta (Madhya Pradesh) 9.10 points; 2. Janhavi Suresh Jadhav (Maharashtra) 9.00; 3. Rupali Sunil Gangawane (Maharashtra) 8.60.

Soft Tennis
Men’s Singles: Jay Meena (Madhya Pradesh) beat Jitender Mehlda (Delhi) 4-0, 4-2, 4-0, 1-4, 4-2. Bronze medals: Rohit Dhiman (Chandigarh) and beat Aniket Chirag Patel (Gujarat).
Women’s Singles: Ragasri Manogar Babu (Tamil Nadu) beat Aadhya Tiwari (Madhya Pradesh) 4-2, 4-2, 4-1, 4-0. Bronze medals: Nikita Bishnoi (Haryana) and Hetvee Chaudhari (Gujarat).

Wushu
Men Daoshu and Gunshu: 1. Shashi Tamang (Services); 2. Rohit Jadhav (Madhya Pradesh); 3. Balwant Singh (Rajasthan).
Women Daoshu and Gunshu: 1. Mercy Ngaimong (Arunachal Pradesh); 2. Wangkheirakpam Ningthibi Devi (Manipur); 3. Bhooraksha Dubey (Madhya Pradesh).

Yogasana
Men
Rhythmic Pair: 1. Aditya Prakash Jangam and Mohammed Firoz Sheik (Karnataka) 127.48 points; 2. Manan Narendra Kasliwal and Om Prakash Varadai (Maharashtra) 125.28; 3. Harshal Vilas Chute and Vaibhav Waman Shrirame (Maharashtra) 124.10.
Women
Rhythmic Pair: 1. Pooja Patel and Komal Makwana (Gujarat) 122.16 points; 2. Kalyani Vilas Chute and Chhakuli Bansilal Selokar (Maharashtra) 120.36; 3. H Kushi and CA Pranamya (Karnataka) 117.78.

Other results

Hockey
Men’s semifinals: Uttar Pradesh beat Maharashtra 3-3 (Half-time 0-2) 3-2 in penalty shoot-out; Karnataka beat Haryana 3-1 (1-1).

Softball
Men
Final (winner moves into Grand Final): Maharashtra beat Chhattisgarh 9-0; Qualifier (winner to meet Chhattisgarh for place in Grand Final): Andhra Pradesh beat Delhi 4-0.
Women
Final (winner moves into Grand Final): Punjab beat Chhattisgarh 7-0. Qualifier (winner to meet Chhattisgarh for a place in Grand Final): Kerala beat Maharashtra 4-3.