National Games: Richa hogs limelight, Manipur topples MP on top

Manipur clinched two gold in rowing and one in wushu to topple Madhya Pradesh from the top position.

Ranchi: Manipur clinched two gold in rowing and one in wushu to topple Madhya Pradesh from the pole position in the medal tally on day three of the 34th National Games here on Tuesday.

But swimmer Richa Mishra hogged the limelight in the Mega Sports Complex at the outskirts of Ranchi for third successive day as she claimed two gold medals with record timings to total six gold and one silver in her kitty. Powered by Richa`s stupendous show, Delhi occupied the third position with 10 gold, five silver and seven bronze medals as swimmers continued to make a splash, shattering five Games records. Leaders Manipur now have 16 gold, eight silver and 12 bronze while Madhya Pradesh, after an overwhelming performance in the first two days, slipped to second position in the medals standings with 12-11-20. Hosts Jharkhand won one gold medal in taekwondo to be on the eighth spot with 5-5-15. In the rowing competition at Maithon Dam of Dhanbad, Manipur`s Priya Devi Changamayum bagged two gold medals when she won the singles and doubles sculls events. Chaoba Devi Thangjam partnered Priya in the double sculls (1500m).Manipur clinched their third gold through Sanathoi Devi Yumnam who won the sanshou 48kgs and below in wushu at the Thakur Vishwanath Shahdeo Indoor Stadium at Mega Sports Complex of Ranchi. Manipur also bagged one silver in rowing and another in wushu. In the women`s sanshou 45kg, Niroda Devi Naorem earned Manipur a silver while in rowing, the pair of Rameshwori Devi Oinam and Tababi Devi Ngangom won the second spot in the coxswain less pairs (1500m). Manipur also won a bronze in rowing with the quartet of Debala Devi Khumanthem, Rameshwori Devi, Tababi Devi and Zingranphy Shanglai finishing third in the women`s coxswain less fours (1500m) event. Surendra Bhandari won a gold for Jharkhand on the concluding day of the taekwondo competition at Ganpat Rai Indoor Stadium at Mega Sports Complex. He outclassed Haryana`s Saurav in the men`s Under 63kg category, while Madhya Pradesh`s Jitendra Verma and Tamil Nadu`s B Janey Dharma settled for the bronze medals after making exits in the last four round. Latika Bhandari of Madhya Pradesh earned the gold in the final bout of the day, knocking out Manipur`s K Nanacha Devi in the Under 53kg while Jharkhand`s Darshanjita Bharali and Karnataka`s B Tejaswini took the bronze medals. Richa hogged the limelight in the swimming arena at the Veer Budhu Bhagat Aquatic Stadium at Mega Sports Complex that saw five records being shattered, including two by the 27-year-old Delhi swimmer. Swimming sensation Virdhawal Khade rewrote his earlier record in the heats and went on to improve it in the final to emerge the fastest swimmer of the Games. Promising Karnataka youngster A P Gagan and statemate Rohit Havaldar smashed the remaining two records of the day. Battling a stomach upset, Richa clocked 05.09:47s to improve her own nine-year-old record of 05.09:91 in the 400m individual medley where Karnataka bagged the silver and bronze through Pooja Alva (05.25:03) and Sushaka Pratap (05.30:21) respectively. Richa smashed her four year old record (02.29:34) in the 200m backstroke when she swam with a timing of 02.26:82. In the first 50m lap, Richa trailed Ananya Panigrahi of Maharashtra but the ace swimmer slowly went ahead and stretched the lead before eclipsing her previous best. Ananya had to settle for silver with a timing of 02.29:22 while her statemate Aarti Ghorpade bagged the bronze clocking 02.32:04. Richa`s hopes of making a hat-trick today was, however, dashed in the 50m freestyle as Talasha lived up to her reputation in the sprint to claim the gold with 27:95. Richa clocked 28:22 for the silver, while A V Jayaveena of Tamil Nadu took the bronze with 28:66. Asian Games bronze medalist Khade had no problem in winning the 50m freestyle as the Kolhapur boy clocked 23:08 en route to his third gold. In the morning session heats, the 19-year-old had bettered his four year old record (23:92) with a timing of 23:81. Arjun J P of Karnataka bagged the silver stopping the clock at 24:65, while Anshul Kothari (24:96) took home the bronze. Showing a lot of promise, 19-year-old Karnataka youngster Gagan smashed Rehan Poncha`s four year old record (04.44:32) with a superb timing of 04.40:08 in the 400m individual medley to start the proceedings in swimming. Delhi bagged the silver through Merwyn Chen who clocked 04.46:56, while national record holder Sandeep Sejwal, representing Madhya Pradesh, bagged the bronze with a timing of 04.51:89. Havaldar, who trains with Khade in Bangalore, clocked 02.08:29 to improve the four year old record of 02.11:65 which was incidentally held by him and Rohit Havaldar as both of whom had a dead heat in Guwahati. Karnataka had the top two finishers in the event as Ashwin Menon bagged the silver with a timing of 02.12:06, while Madhu PS of Services Sports Control Board won the bronze clocking 02.15:91. In diving, Maharashtra clinched the gold through Hrutika Shriram. Hrutika logged 200.95 in the high board en route to the gold, while her statemate Jagruti Satarakar (159.50) and. Bengal`s Tanuka Dhara (153.45) bagged the silver and bronze respectively. PTI