Panjab University wins 10 gold to go on top of KIUG medal tally

A 10-gold day helped Panjab University, Chandigarh (PUC), soar to the top of the 3rd Khelo Indian University Games' (KIUG) medal tally, leaving behind rivals Guru Nanak Dev Univeristy (GNDU), Amritsar, who are now second. Initial leaders and defending champions Jain University, Karnataka, are placed in third position.

PUC picked up five golds in rowing, two each in athletics and shooting and one in judo, to end Wednesday with a tally of 21 gold, 12 silver and 16 bronze medals. Competition day nine of the Games also saw three new records being created, all at the athletics competition at the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College (GGSSC) grounds here.

Sidharth AK of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam (MGU, Kottayam) cleared 4.90m to create a new record in men's pole vault, while Harita of Chaudhary Bansi Lal University (CBLU) sank the women's javelin record with a throw of 50.14m en route to gold.

Harita's mate Pooja then made a new games mark in Heptathlon accumulating 4991 points over her seven events. A total of 15 golds were decided on the final day of the athletics competition and MGU, Kottayam were the most successful with three golds.

PUC win 11 golds in rowing

In rowing, the table toppers bagged five of the 15 golds on offer on the final day at the Ramgarh Taal in Gorakhpur. Panjabi University picked up three while Calicut University won two gold medals.

Overall, PUC won 11 gold, four silver and six bronze medals in rowing for a total of 21 medals, a big reason for their top position in the standings. Their winners on the day included Ravinder and Dinesh Kumar in the light weight men's doubles sculls, Sonu Verma, Ajeeth, Sudarshan Lamba and Gurpreet Singh in the light weight men's fours, Khushpreet Kaur and Diljot Kaur in the light weight women's doubles sculls, Khushpreet, Diljot, Gurbani and Poonam in the women's fours sculls and finally Sukhdeep, Rajat, Sahil and Aditya in the men's fours 500 metres races.

Pair of Manu, Sarabjot win mixed team pistol gold

At the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range, Olympian Manu Bhaker and India international Sarabjot Singh won the 10m air pistol mixed team gold medal with a facile 16-2 victory over Varun Dubey and Vibhuti Bhatia of Delhi University.

These were the first of two golds won at the range by PUC with Prabh Pratap Singh Chahal and Parinaaz Dhaliwal claiming the mixed team skeet competition. It was Parinaaz's second gold at the KIUG 2022 UP, after she had won the women's individual skeet gold earlier.