National Games round-up: Wrestler Hinaben Khalifa, badminton mixed team add two bronze

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Hinaben Khalifa became only the second woman wrestler from Gujarat to clinch a National Games medal and the hosts also bagged the badminton mixed team bronze on a day when five Games record were broken in the swimming pool. Hinaben Khalifa had been training under the radar at the Gujarat government’s Centre of Excellence in Nadiad but rose to the occasion to clinch a bronze medal in the women’s 53 kg weight category. She began her campaign with an easy win over Himachal Pradesh’s Ritika and then won by technical superiority against Uttarakhand’s Priyanka Sikarwar. She was, however, no match to eventual champion Antim of Haryana.

But Hinaben Khalifa regrouped herself in time for the bronze medal bout against Shivani. She took a 2-0 lead early into the contest and then bagged three successive points immediately after the breather. With hardly a minute left, Shivani did manage to get a point back but Khalifa stifled any further scoring opportunities to win 7-1.

"It would have been great to win gold in front of home crowd. But unfortunately, it didn’t turn out as expected. This is a great learning curve for me, and getting a bronze at the National Games will boost my confidence," said Hinaben Khalifa after the bout.

"The level of competition is really high in my weight category. Antim has been a world beater, Priyanshi is the top seed, it is a healthy competition and every wrestler have to put in a lot of effort to get past the other," she added.

However, there was heartbreak for Gujarat in the women’s 57kg category as Bhavika Patel went down 4-6 against Sonali Mandlik of Maharashtra in the bronze medal play-off.

In Surat, Gujarat’s badminton mixed team fought hard against second seeds Kerala in the semi-finals but went down 1-3. However, the first ever semifinals appearance assured them of a historic bronze.

Elsewhere, Aneesh S Gowda announced his arrival as a bright prospect on the senior stage in telling fashion, scripting a fairy-tale victory over the seasoned Sajan Prakash in the men’s 200m Freestyle final in the National Games Aquatics competition at the Sardar Patel Aquatics Complex in Rajkot.

On day which saw five National Games records being rewritten in the pool, Aneesh Gowda’s 1:51.88 was the standout effort. The Karnataka teenager, who won the event at the National Championships last month, showed nerves of steel and immaculate focus when squaring up against the Olympian.

Not to be left behind, track and field competitors also produced four National Games records in five finals at IIT Gandhinagar today. Services High Jumper Sarvesh Anil Kushare with a clearance of 2.27m and Uttar Pradesh’s Usaid Khan who won the Decathlon with 7121 points.

Yamandeep Sharma (Rajasthan) joined Usaid as the first two men to pass 7000 points in the National Games. The Haryana men’s 4x400m relay quartet and the Tamil Nadu 4x400 squad were the others who came up with New National Games Records.

Commonwealth Games 2018 bronze medallist weightlifter Deepak Lather (Haryana) clinched men’s 81kg gold after a keen battle with Services’ star Ajay Singh at the Mahatma Mandir. Deepak took the top spot in the podium with total lifts of 315kg while Ajay Singh finished a mere 1kg behind, despite lifting two kilos more in Clean and Jerk.

On the opening day of hockey competitions, Sunelit Toppo scored the winner for Odisha in their 3-2 win against Uttar Pradesh in a women’s Group A match at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in Rajkot. Favourites Haryana thumped novices Gujarat 30-1 in another match., Navneet Kaur and Neha leading the scoring with five goals each. For the hosts, Muskan Kureshi got a consolation goal in the 37th minute.

The results:

Aquatics

Diving

3m Springboard: 1. Siddharth Pardeshi (Services) 288.80 points; 2. H London Singh (Services) 277.40; 3. Aditya Giram (Maharashtra) 246.15.

Swimming

Men

200m Freestyle: Aneesh S Gowda (Karnataka) 1:51.88 (New National Games record. Old: 1:52.05, Aaron D’Souza, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. Sajan Prakash (Kerala) 1:52.43; 3. Vishal Grewal (Delhi) 1:53.29.

100m Butterfly: 1. Sajan Prakash (Kerala) 55.32 seconds; 2. Bikram Changmai (Assam) 55.73; 3. Sanu Debnath (West Bengal) 56.11.

4x100m Freestyle Relay: 1. Karnataka 3:27.32 (New National Games Record. Old: 3;32.31, Kerala team, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015): 2. Tamil Nadu 3:29.28; 3. Services 3:30.33

Women

200m Freestyle: 1. Hansika Ramachandra (Karnataka) 2:07.08 (New National Games record. Old: 2:07.46, Shivani Kataria, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. Dhinidhi Desinghu (Karnataka) 2:07.92; 3. Bhavya Sachdeva (Delhi) 2;11.03.

100m Butterfly: 1. Astha Choudhury (Assam) 1:03.38 (New National Games  Record. Old: 1:03.90, Astha Choudhury, Rajkot, 2022); 2. Tanishi Gupta (Karnataka) 1:03.51; 3. Nina Venkatesh (Karnataka) 1:03.68..

4x100m Freestyle Relay: 1. Karnataka 4:03.10 (New National Games record. Old: 4:04.57, Maharashtra team, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. Maharashtra 4:09.29; 3. Tamil Nadu 3:14.20.

 Athletics Men

High Jump: 1. Sarvesh Anil Kushare (Services) 2.27m (New National Games record. Old: 2.16, Jithin Thomas, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. T Aromal (Kerala) 2.19; 3. Chethan Balasubramanya (Services)

4x400m relay: 1. Haryana (Gourav, Vikrant Panchal, Ayush Dabas, Angrej Singh) 3:06.58 (New National Games Record. Old: 3:09.51, Kerala team, Ludhiana, 2001); 2. Services 3:07.04; 3. Tamil Nadu 3:09.42.

Decathlon: 1. Usaid Khan (Uttar Pradesh) 7121 points (New National Games record. Old: 6951, M Kumar, Hyderabad, 2002) (100m: 11.11; LJ: 6.83; SP: 11.79; HJ:: 1.86; 400m: 49.70; 110mH: 14.89; DT: 36.07; PV: 4.40; JT: 45.34; 1500m: 4:35.18)’; 2. Yamandeep Sharma (Rajasthan) 7098; 3. Umesh Lamba (Rajasthan) 6758.

Women

Triple Jump: 1. NV Sheena (Kerala) 13.37m; 2. G Karthika (Andhra Pradesh) 12.85; 3. Poorva Sawant (Maharashtra) 12.76.

4x400m Relay: Tamil Nadu (J Dhivya, J Vithya Ramaraj, Olyumbia Stify, Subha Venkatesan) 3:35.32 (New National Games record. Old: 3:35.34, Kerala team, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. Haryana 3:35.86; 3. Karnataka 3:36.50.

Cycling (New Delhi):

Men

200m sprint: 1. Ronaldo Singh (Manipur); 2. David Beckham E (Andaman and Nicobar); 3. Esow (Andaman and Nicobar).

4000m Team Pursuit:

1. Services (Mula Ram, Birjit Yuman, Dinesh Kumar, Manjit Singh); 2. Punjab (Harshvir Singh, Rajbir Singh, Naman Kapil, Vishwajit Singh); 3. Rajasthan (Poonam Chand, Mukesh Kumar, Biram Ram, Devendra Bishnoi).

Women's

200m sprint: 1. Mayuri Lute (Maharashtra); 2. Triyasha Pal (West Bengal); 3. N. Nikita (Andaman and Nicobar).

4000m Team Pursuit: 1. Manipur (Khoiram Rejya Devi, M. Sonali Chanu, Thongram Manorama Devi, Irom Matolebi Devi); 2. Haryana (Himanshi Singh, Anshu, Meenakshi,

Prabhjot Kaur); 3. Maharashtra (Shushikala Angse, Pooja Danole, Aditi Dongre, Vaishnavi Gabhane).

Gymnastics

Men

Floor Exercises: 1. Gaurav Kumar (Services) 13.267 points; 2.  Satyajit Mondal (West Bengal) 13.233; 3. Tushar K (Delhi) 13.167).

Pommel Horse: 1. Siddharth Verma (Uttar Pradesh) 13.1000; 2. Harikrishnan JS ( Kerala) 13.000; 3. Abhijeet Kumar (Services) 12.933.

Roman Rings: 1. Rakesh Kumar (Odisha) 13.033; 2. Aditya Singh Rana (Uttar Pradesh) 12.867; 3. Gaurav Kumar (Services) 12.700.

Vaulting: 1.  Satyajit Mondal (West Bengal) 14.08; 2. Siddhant Verma (Uttar Pradesh) 13.57; 3. Sanasam Ruba (Manipur) 13.37.

Parallel Bars: 1. Gaurav Kumar (Services) 13.833; 2. Aditya Singh Rana (Uttar Pradesh) 13.167; 3. Mohammed Bobby (Uttar Pradesh) 13.133.

Women

Vaulting: 1. Protishta Samanta (Tripura) 12.6335 points; 2. Pranati Nayak (West Bengal) 12.533); 3. Shrivarshini (Karnataka) 12.066.

Uneven Bar: 1. Pranati Nayak (West Bengal) 11.800; 2.  Pranati Das (West Bengal) 10.200); 3. Mallika Kulshrestra (Delhi) 9.667.

Balancing Beam: 1. Protistha  Samanta (Tripura) 11.200; 2. Papia Das (West Bengal) 10. 933; 3. Eshita Rewale (Maharashtra) 10.700.

Floor: 1. Pranati Nayak (West Bengal;) 11.533; 2. Srivarshinee (Karnataka) 11. 333; 3. Pranati Das (West Bengal) 11.267.

Rowing

Men’s Singles Sculls (M1X): 1. Jakhar Khan (Services) 6:39.5; 2. Shobit Pandey (Odisha) 6:54.9; 3. Sukhbir Singh (Delhi) 7:01.3.

Doubles Sculls (M2X): 1. Shangdeep Singh and Parminder Singh (Services) 5:56.7; 2. Kulwinder Singh and Karamjit Singh (Punjab) 6:02.0; 3. Gurpratap Singh and Jaspreet Singh (Jharkhand) 6:05.4.

Coxless Pair (M2-): Services (Jasveer Singh and Iqbal Singh) 6:34.06; 2. Maharashtra 6:42.05; 3. Madhya Pradesh 6:44.08.

Coxless Four (M4-): 1. Services (Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar and Ashish) 5:47.09; 2. Punjab 5:52.09; 3, Rajasthan 5:54.09.

Women

Singles Sculls (W1X): 1. Khushpreet Kaur (Madhya Pradesh) 7:22.0; 2. Kiran Devi (Uttar Pradesh) 7:29.0; 3. Mrunmayee Nilesh Salgaonkar (Maharashtra) 7:33.1.