Khelo India School Games: Swimmers lead Karnataka to top of medals tally

New Delhi: Led by their swimmers, Karnataka surged to the top of the medals tally on the first day of competition at the inaugural Khelo India School Games (KISG), here on Thursday. The swimmers won six of the nine gold medals on offer and both the boys and girls contributed three each. Karnataka are leading the medals tally with seven gold and three bronze for a total of 10 medals.

Earlier in the day, sprinter VA Shashikanth from Government Sports High School and Youth Centre in Vidyanagar gave Karnataka their first gold when he won the 200 race.

The day saw a total of 17 gold medals on offer with nine in the pool, seven on the track and one in wrestling. While Karnataka ruled the pool, honours were more evenly distributed in athletics, where Haryana won two gold and five states - Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala and Tamil Nadu - won one each.

Sharing second place on the medals tally behind Karnataka are Tamil Nadu and Haryana with three gold each. Both states have earned their gold medals in athletics.

Down the medals tally, Kerala and Maharashtra have two gold, both from athletics, while seven states - Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh - have one gold each.

A total of 14 states from the 36 that are competing have already found a place in the medals tally.

The first wrestling gold went to Maharashtra's Nikhil Mali, who won his bouts against Amit of Haryana and Maharashtra's Krushna Ghodke. Amit took the silver as he won his bout against Ghodke.

The day's biggest star was Karnataka swimmer Srihari Nataraj who improved on his own national record in 100m backstroke with a time of 56.90 sec, improving on his own mark by nine-hundredths of a second.

He was also part of the Karnataka team that raced away to a gold medal in 4x100m freestyle, where he swam the final leg.

Three others, all in athletics, have also become multiple medallists.

Among them, Kerala's Ancy Sojan, like Srihari, won both her medals on Thursday. She won the girls' long jump and finished second in 200m. The two events were held in very a short span of time.

The 16-year-old Ancy is from Government Fisheries Higher Secondary School, Nattika, and is coached by Sanuj V in Thrissur.

Two other athletes to become multiple medallists are Sandra Babu of Kerala and Tamil Nadu's Praveen, a class-XI student of Balakrishnan Matriculation School. Praveen added a long jump silver to his triple jump gold.