Fourteen-year-old Dhinidhi Desinghu became the youngest female swimmer to win seven gold medals in the National Games while Srihari Nataraj finished with ten medals including eight gold, one silver and bronze each as Karnataka topped the standings chart at the end of aquatic competitions of the 2023 National Games on Saturday.
Entering the last day’s competition, Desinghu was locked with teammate Nina Venkatesh with five golds and both had two more events to compete. It was the youngster who took the gold in the 100m freestyle with a new Games record to forge ahead.
Later, she and Nina teamed up with Nataraj and Vidith Shankar to help Karnataka clinch the gold in the 4x100m medley relay, the final event of the swimming competition of the National Games to complete a haul of seven gold medals.
Haryana and Punjab shared the four gold medals on offer, on day two of the shooting competitions. Two Olympians, Anjum Moudgil and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions and men’s skeet respectively, were among the gold medallists.
Haryana’s golds came through Sanjana Sood in the women’s skeet and the pair of Sarabjot Singh and Palak Gulia in the 10m air pistol mixed team event. Haryana now have three of the five golds decided in shooting so far, after Sagar Bhargava had won the men’s 10m air pistol on the opening day on Friday.
Defending champions Services and Haryana have inched closer to table leaders Maharashtra taking their gold medal tally to 51 and 45 respectively. Maharashtra have a total of 179 medals that includes 63 gold and 58 each silver and bronze medals.
Harshitha Jayaram of Kerala won gold in 100m Breaststroke with a new games record while S.P Likith of Services won the event in the men’s section with a timing of 1:02.25s. Nataraj won the gold in the 100m men’s freestyle with a dominating swim, creating a new games record and stopping the clock at 49.97s.
Haryana won their second Shooting gold of the 2023 National Games when the pair of Sarabjot Singh and Palak Gulia won the 10m air pistol mixed team event, with a 17-11 win over Rajasthan’s Khanak Vyas and Amit Sharma. The two teams got to the gold medal match by means of coming first and second in qualification.
While Sarabjot and Palak topped with a combined score of 581, Khanak and Amit were second with 577. Madhya Pradesh won bronze. Olympian and former world championship silver medallist Anjum Moudgil was next to top the podium as she got back to the winning way after an indifferent year, registering a pillar to post victory over the likes of world record holder Sift Kaur Samra and Hangzhou Asiad star Ashi Chouksey who won silver and bronze respectively.
Asian Games mixed doubles gold medallist Rutuja Bhosale partnered with Prarthana Thombare to win the gold medal in the women’s doubles tennis competition. The Maharashtra pair beat Sravya Shivani and Rashmika Bhamipaty of Telangana in straight sets (6-3, 6-1).
Later, Maharashtra also won gold in the men’s doubles category as Arjun Khade and Purav Raja beat Prajwal S.D Dev and Adil Kalyanpur of Karnataka in straight sets (7-6, 6-3) to win the gold.
In the canoeing and kayaking competition, Madhya Pradesh’s Arjun Singh who had represented the country in in Hangzhou clinched two medals in the canoeing races. In the individual 1000m category, Arjun won gold with a timing of 4:19.375s. Later he partnered with Sonu Verma to win silver in the 1000m canoe with a timing of 4.29.055s. Services won the gold while Odisha won the bronze.
Important Results:
Swimming
Men’s 100 M Freestyle
Gold – Srihari Nataraj (Karnataka) – 49.97 s (NGR)
Silver – A.S Anand (SSCB) – 51.37 s
Bronze – Vishal Grewal (Delhi) – 51.48 s
Women’s 100 M Freestyle
Gold – Dhinidhi Desinghu (Karnataka) – 57.87 s (NGR)
Silver – Shivangi Sarma (Assam) – 58.07 s
Bronze – Janhvi Choudhary (West Bengal) – 58.37 s
Women’s 100 M Breaststroke
Gold – Harshitha Jayaram (Kerala) – 1:13.89 s (NGR)
Silver – A.K Linyesha (Karnataka) – 1:13.99 s
Bronze – Venika Parikh (Gujarat) – 1:14.64 s
Men’s 100 M Breaststroke
Gold – S.P Likith (SSCB) – 1:02.25 s
Silver – S. Danush (Tamil Nadu) – 1:03.95 s
Bronze – S. Suneesh (SSCB) – 1:04.64 s
4X100 M Mixed Medley Relay
Gold – Karnataka – 4:03.80 s
(Srihari Nataraj, Vidith S. Shankar, Nina Venkatesh, Dhinidhi Desinghu)
Silver – Maharashtra – 4:09.75 s
(Palak Joshi, Hiba Chougle, Mihir Ambre, Virdhawal Khade)
Bronze – West Bengal – 4:11.87 s
(Soubrity Mondal, Sayan Bhowmik, Sanu Debnath, Janhvi Choudhary)
Shooting
10 M Air Pistol Mixed Team
Gold – Sarabjot Singh/Palak Gulia
Silver – Khanak Vyas/Amit Sharma
Bronze – Nancy Solanki/Yugpratap Singh Rathore
50 M Rifle 3 Positions Women
Gold – Anjum Moudgil (Punjab) – 458.9 points
Silver – Sift Kaur Samra (Punjab) – 458.2 points
Bronze – Ashi Chouksey (Madhya Pradesh) – 445.3 points
Skeet Women
Gold – Sanjana Sood (Haryana)
Silver – Raizia Dhillon (Haryana)
Bronze – Maheshwari Chauhan (Rajasthan)
Skeet Men
Gold – Angad Vir Singh Bajwa (Punjab)
Silver – Rituraj Bundela (Madhya Pradesh)
Bronze – Arjun Thakur (SSCB)
Tennis
Women’s Doubles
Finals - Rutuja Bhosale/Prarthana Thombare (Maharashtra) bt Rashmika Bhamipaty/Sravya Shivani (Telangana) – 6/3, 6/1)
Bronze – C. Sai Samhitha/Janani Ramesh (Tamil Nadu) and Sharmada Balu/Soha Sadiq (Karnataka)
Men’s Doubles
Finals – Arjun Khade/Purav Raja (Mahrashtra) bt Prajwal S.D Dev/Adil Kalyanpur (Karnataka) – 7/6, 6/3
Bronze – Digvijay Singh/Karan Singh (Haryana) and Siddharth Vishwakarma/Sidharth Rawat (Uttar Pradesh)
Canoeing & Kayaking
Men’s 1000 M Kayak Individual
Gold – L. Naocha Singh (Manipur) – 3:58.895 s
Silver – Rimson Mairembam (Madhya Pradesh) – 4:03.4 s
Bronze – Oinam Arun Singh (Manipur) – 4:05.420 s
Men’s 1000 M Kayak Pair
Gold – K.R Kannan/Rimson Mairembam (Madhya Pradesh) – 3:43.830 s
Silver – Tomthilnganba Ngashepam/Khangembam Nanao Meitei (Odisha) – 3:44.00
Bronze – CH. Devabrata Singh/Ajatsatru Sharma (SSCB) – 3:50.190 s
Men’s 1000 M Canoe Pair
Gold – PH. Gyaneshwor Singh/N. Ribason Singh (SSCB) – 4:22.830 s
Silver – Arjun Singh/Sonu Verma (Madhya Pradesh) – 4:29.055 s
Bronze – Phairembam Borish Singh/Avinash Shingam (Odisha) – 4:37.630 s
Men’s 1000 M Canoe Individual
Gold – Arjun Singh (Madhya Pradesh) – 4:19.375 s
Silver – Salam Sunil Singh (SSCB) – 4:30.245 s
Bronze – Ningthoujam Nepolian (Karnataka) – 4:31.920 s
Triathlon
Individual Men
Gold – Adarsh Murlidharan S (SSCB) – 1:02:25 s
Silver – K.P Yajat Aiyappa (Karnataka) – 1:02:43 s
Bronze – Khundrakpam Nganba Meitei (Manipur) – 1:03:04 s
Wushu
Women’s Taijijian
Gold – Yengkhom Geeta Devi (Manipur) – 9:15 points
Silver – Shravani Khatke (Maharashtra) – 8.15 points
Bronze –Sakshi Johri (Uttar Pradesh) – 8.10 points
Men’s Taijijian
Gold – H. Karanjit Sharma (SSCB) – 9.55 points
Silver – Sanma Brahma (Assam) – 9:35 points
Bronze – Abhishekh Mehto (Delhi) – 8.60 points
Women’s Nangun
Gold – Neelam Choudhary (Rajasthan) – 9.00 points
Silver – Konjengbam Luxmi Devi (Manipur) – 8.80 points
Bronze – Geeta Xalxo (Jharkhand) – 8.00 points
Men’s Nangun
Gold – Bonish Yurembram (Manipur) – 9.00 points
Silver – Sher Bahaddur (Goa) – 8.85 points
Bronze – Prashant Manhans (Himachal Pradesh) – 8.10 points
Cycling
Women Sprint Team
Gold – Maharashtra – 00:52.807 s
Silver – Manipur – 00:53.930 s
Bronze – Andaman & Nicobar Islands – 00:54.644 s
Women Omnium Individual
Gold – Meenakshi (Haryana) – 141 points
Silver – Keerthi Ralagaswamy C (Karnataka) – 131 points
Bronze – Swasti Singh (Odisha) – 129 points
Men Sprint Team
Gold – Manipur – 00:46.546 s
Silver – Andaman & Nicobar Islands – 00:47.675 s
Bronze – SSCB – 00:48.356 s
Lawn Bowls
Men’s Pairs
Gold – Jharkhand
Silver – West Bengal
Bronze – Delhi, Madhya Pradesh
Men’s Triples
Gold – Assam
Silver – West Bengal
Bronze – Jharkhand, Delhi
Women’s Fours
Gold – Assam
Silver – Delhi
Bronze – West Bengal, Odisha
Women’s Singles
Gold – Chhoti Kumari (Jharkhand)
Silver – Beena Shah (West Bengal)
Bronze – Shaistha Sharma (Delhi), Nayanmoni Saikia (Assam)
Archery
Indian Round Men Team
Gold – Assam
Silver – Haryana
Bronze – Chhattisgarh
Indian Round Women Team
Gold – Manipur
Silver – Assam
Bronze – Gujarat
Indian Round Mixed Team
Gold – Manipur
Silver – Assam
Bronze – Rajasthan
Indian Round Individual Men
Gold – Gemmeli Biraghi Naidu (Andhra Pradesh)
Silver – Saurabh Maurya (Uttar Pradesh)
Bronze – Dasarath Rajagopal (Kerala)
Indian Round Individual Women
Gold – Tutumoni Boro (Assam)
Silver – Wangkhem Malesori Devi (Manipur)
Bronze – Laiphrakpam Rojina Devi (Manipur)
Water Polo
Men’s
Gold – Maharashtra
Silver – SSCB
Bronze – West Bengal
Women’s
Gold – Kerala
Silver – West Bengal
Bronze – Maharashtra
Men’s Football
Pool A: Kerala drew Meghalaya – 2-2, Manipur bt Maharashtra – 8-3
Kabbadi
Women
Haryana bt Punjab – 31-27
Rajasthan bt Uttar Pradesh – 54 – 24
Men
SSCB drew Haryana – 34-34
Tamil Nadu by Chandigarh – 51- 27
Hockey
Men
Pool A: Odisha bt West Bengal – 12-0, Haryana bt Maharashtra – 3-1
Pool B: Tamil Nadu bt Jharkhand – 6-2
Women
Pool A: Haryana bt Madhya Pradesh – 4-2, Odisha bt Tamil Nadu – 6-1
Pool B: Punjab drew Maharashtra – 3-3