Manipur and Madhya Pradesh recorded victories over their respective rivals in women's hockey competition of the 38th National Games in Haridwar on Saturday.
In the opening encounter of the day, Manipur women defeated hosts Uttarakhand 5-2, courtesy goals through Bramhacharimayum Sarita Devi (3rd minute), Suman Devi Thoudam (24th), Chanu Lanchenbi Khundrakpam (44th, 47th) and Devi Thounaojam Nirupama (51st).
Saloni Pilkhwal (2nd, 49th) scored a brace for the hosts.
Uttarakhand have been knocked out of the tournament after four losses in as many games, while Manipur are currently placed fourth in Pool B standings with four points from three encounters.
Later, Madhya Pradesh defeated West Bengal 2-1 in a Pool A match to retain the top spot. Nilanjali Rai converted a penalty corner in the 19th minute and Anjali Gautam found the back of the net in the 35th minute for MP. Subila Tirkey (37th) scored off a penalty corner for West Bengal.
In the men's event, Maharashtra secured a 2-1 victory against hosts Uttarakhand in a Pool B encounter.
Govind Singh Bisht found the back of the net in the fifth minute to hand the hosts a 1-0 lead. Maharashtra captain Sunil Walmiki (14th, 26th) converted two penalty corners to hand his side the win.
Maharashtra are currently second in the standings with seven points, while Uttarakhand have crashed out with just one point from four games.
Later in the day, Karnataka beat Manipur 4-1 to retain the top spot in Pool A standings.
Ganesh Majji (18th), Surya N M (31st), Bharath Mahalingappa Kurtakoti (54th), Shamanth C (55th) scored a goal each for Karnataka, while Irengbam Rohit Singh (47th) was the lone goal scorer for the losing side.
Karnataka have nine points, having won all three matches in the group stage. Manipur, on the other hand, are out of the race with just one point from three outings.
Karnataka to face Services in men's doubles tennis final
Karnataka duo of Prajwal Dev and Nikki K Poonacha and Services pair of Ishaq Iqbal and Faisal Qamar will face off in the men's doubles final after defeating their respective opponents in the semi-finals of tennis competitions at the National Games in Dehradun on Saturday.
The Dev-Poonacha pair comfortably defeated Delhi's Shivank Bhatnagar and Sarthak Suden 6-3, 6-0, while the Iqbal-Qamar duo defeated Tamil Nadu's Abhinav Sanjeev S and Manish Sureshkumar 6-1, 6-2 in the semis.
In the mixed doubles quarter-finals, Tamil Nadu's Lohit Aksh Bathrinath and Lakshmi Prabha Arunkumar defeated Uttarakhand's Swapnil Negi and Jaya Kapoor 6-1, 6-0 to secure a spot in the semi-finals.
Haryana's Sunil Kumar and Aditi Rawat triumphed over Delhi's Parth Agarwal and Kashish Bhatia 6-4 6-4, while West Bengal's Nitin Kumar Sinha and Yubrani Banerjee overcame Gujarat's Madhwin Kamath and Jheel Desai 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 to reach the last-four stage.
Karnataka's Nikki K Poonacha and Soha Sadiq edged out Maharashtra's Prasad Vijaykumar Ingle and Vaishnavi Adkar 2-6 7-6(5) 10-8 to take the final semifinal spot in the mixed doubles.
In the women's singles, Maharashtra's Vaishnavi Adkar defeated West Bengal's Yubrani Banerjee 6-1 6-3 to book a quarterfinal spot.
Haryana's Anjali Rathi beat Karnataka's Soha Sadiq 6-1 7-5, while Haryana's Aditi Rawat overcame Uttarakhand's Diya Chaudhary 6-1 7-6(6) to also enter the last-eight stage.
Tamil Nadu's Lakshmi Prabha Arunkumar also advanced to the quarterfinals after Telangana's Sanjana Sirimalla retired at 3-0.
In other women's singles quarter-final matches, Maharashtra's Akanksha Nitture dominated Punjab's Sahira Singh with a 6-2. 6-1 victory, Karnataka's Amodini Naik secured a hard-fought 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win against Gujarat's Soumya Vig, Gujarat's Vaidehi Chaudhary defeated Tamil Nadu's Mirudhula Palanivel 6-1 6-1, while Telangana's Lakshmi Siri Dandu won against Delhi's Riya Sachdeva 6-2, 6-1.
In the men's singles pre-quarterfinal matches, Gujarat's Dev Javia outclassed Delhi's Parth Agarwal 6-2, 6-2, Delhi's Sarthak Suden defeated Tamil Nadu's Dheeraj Kondancha Srinivasan 6-2, 7-5, Services' Ishaq Iqbal emerged victorious against Maharashtra's Prasad Vijaykumar Ingle 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 match and Karnataka's Prajwal Dev edged past Uttar Pradesh's Maan Kesharwani 7-6(4), 7-5.
Tamil Nadu's Manish Sureshkumar dominated Karnataka's Adil Kalyanpur 6-1, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals, so also West Bengal's Nitin Kumar Sinha after securing a 7-5, 6-3 win over Madhya Pradesh's Raghav Jayasinghani.
Uttarakhand's Dron Walia outplayed Services' Ajay Malik 6-3 6-3, while Haryana's Udit Kamboj fought back to defeat Odisha's Kabir Haas 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to also enter the quarterfinals.
Jharkhand shine in lawn bowls
Jharkhand clinched two gold and as many bronze medals on the final day of lawn bowls competition with the country's 2022 Commonwealth Games silver-winning men's team members Sunil Bahadur and Dinesh Kumar bagging a yellow metal each at the National Games in Dehradun on Saturday.
Sunil won the men's singles gold, defeating Chandan Kumar 21-17 in the final. Chandan was also a member of the 2022 CWG men's fours silver-winning team, the other two being Dinesh and Navneet Singh.
Soumen Banerjee of West Bengal and Putul Sonowal of Assam took home a bronze each.
In the men's fours final, the Jharkhand team of Dinesh, Alok Lakra, MD Wasim and Abhishek Lakra defeated West Bengal 17-10 to win the gold. Assam and Manipur won a bronze each.
In fact, it was second gold of the Games for both Sunil and Dinesh who had finished on top together in the men's pairs event.
Lovely Choubey and Rupa Rani Tirkey, part of the history-making women's fours champion team that won the country's first lawn bowls gold in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, lost to Odisha 14-16 in women's pairs event to settle for a bronze.
Sarita Tirkey, Reshma Kumari and Kavita Kumari also settled for a bronze in women's triples after losing to West Bengal 3-25 in the semi-finals.
Bihar won the gold in the women's triples while Assam finished on top of podium in women's pairs.
Lovely and Rupa had also won gold as part of the Jharkhand women's fours team that won the title here on Wednesday.
Jharkhand topped the lawn bowls medal tally with five gold, two silver and two bronze.
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