Track and field athletes grab spotlight
Track and field athletes grabbed the spotlight in the National Games with Odisha's rising star Animesh Kujur sprinting his way to men's 100m gold with a meet record-equalling time in a top-class field in Dehradun on Saturday.
Out of the 10 gold on offer on the opening day of athletics competitions, Maharashtra and Services picked up two each, while Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Tamil Nadu claimed one each.
Services added three gold on Saturday to remain on top of tally with 71 medals (42 gold, 16 silver, 13 bronze), followed by Karnataka (30 gold, 12 silver, 16 bronze) and Maharashtra (25 gold, 42 silver, 46 bronze).
Madhya Pradesh stood at fourth place with 19 gold, 13 silver, and 18 bronze medals, while Haryana with 18 gold, 26 silver and 28 bronze, took the fifth spot.
There was no change in the top-five rankings from the previous day, but Uttarakhand surprised one and all by jumping four places to sixth with the addition of 13 medals, including six gold, to their tally on Saturday.
The hosts now have 61 medals (14 gold, 22 silver, 26 bronze) in total.
At the newly-laid athletics track in Dehradun, the 21-year-old Kujur clocked Games record-equalling time of 10.28 seconds to win the men's 100m gold medal.
Kujur, who has a personal best time of 10.27 seconds, equalled the Games record of 10.28 seconds set by Amlan Borgohain of Assam at the 2022 edition in Gujarat.
Kujur is the 100m silver medallist at both the Federation Cup and National Inter-State Championships in 2024.
Maharashtra's Pranav Gurav was the surprised silver winner with a time of 10.32 seconds, while Borgohain was third with 10.43 seconds.
National record holder Manikanta Hoblidhar of Services finished fifth with a time of 10.46 seconds. His national record set in 2023 stands at 10.23 seconds.
One of the country's top 100m runners, Gurinderveer Singh, who won titles in the Federation Cup and National Inter-State Championships last year, failed to qualify for the final, finishing third in heat number 2 with a below-par time of 10.96 seconds. He has a personal best of 10.27 seconds.
The men's 100m race is one of the few athletics events in which most of the top athletes of the country are competing.
Maharashtra's Sudeshna Shivankar ran away with the women's 100m gold, clocking 11.76 seconds, while Nithya Gandhe (11.79) of Telengana and Giridharani Ravikumar (11.88) of Tamil Nadu were second and third respectively.
Sawan Barwal of Himachal Pradesh won gold in the men's 10,000m final with a Games record time of 28:49.93, bettering the earlier mark of 28:54.29 set by Gulveer Singh in the 2022 edition in Gujarat.
Barwal was a bronze medal winner at the 2023 Asian Half Marathon race. He also won the 2024 Delhi Half Marathon title among the Indians.
In the women's 10,000m final, seasoned Sanjivani Jadhav of Maharashtra claimed the gold with a time of 33:33.47.
Uttarakhand's Ankita Dhyani, who represented India in the Paris Olympics in 5000m, ran 34:31.03 to win the silver. Another Uttarakhand athlete, Soniya clinched the bronze, clocking 35:45.19.
In the women's 1500m final, Delhi's 2022 edition champion KM Chanda beat national record holder KM Deeksha of Madhya Pradesh for the gold. Chanda clocked 4 minutes and 17.74 seconds, while Deeksha was far behind at 4:21.92. Amandeep Kaur of Punjab took the bronze with a time of 4:22.75.
In the men's discus throw event, Gagandeep Singh of Services defended the gold medal he had won in the 2023 edition with an effort of 55.01m, while the silver went to Nirbhay Singh (54.07m) of Haryana and the bronze to Alex P Thankachan (52.79m) of Kerala.
Other Results:
Men's Long Jump: Gold: Shahnavaz Khan (Uttar Pradesh) - 7.70m; Silver: V Sriram (Tamil Nadu) - 7.59m; Bronze: Anurag CV (Kerala) - 7.56m.
Men's 1500m: Gold: Yoonus Shah (Services) - 3:46.48; Silver: Ritesh Ohre (Madhya Pradesh) - 3:46.64; Bronze: Ram Singh (Uttarakhand) - 3:50.24.
Women's discus throw:
Gold: Seema (Haryana) - 52.70m; Silver: Bhavana Yadav (Delhi) - 51.82m; Bronze: Amanat Kamboj (Punjab) - 49.94m.
Women's pole vault: Gold: Pavithra Venkatesh (Tamil Nadu) - 3.95m; Silver: Baranica Elangovan (Tamil Nadu) - 3.90m; Bronze: Mariya Jaison (Kerala) - 3.90m.
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