National Games Round up: Jamuna Boro headlines boxing, Advait and Sajan swimming

Madhya Pradesh's Advait Page and Kerala's Sajan Prakash had everyone gasping in awe as they produced the fireworks to win their third gold medals each even as Maana Patel delivered her second gold for Gujarat in the 36th National Games at the Sardar Patel Aquatics Complex here this evening.

While they are engaged in a keen gold medal hunt, West Bengal Recurve archer Atanu Das also captured attention when he won the Men's Individual gold, beating Gurcharan Besra (Services) 6-4 at the Sanskardam Sports Complex near Ahmedabad. His celebratory roar could be heard at a distance.

Despite winning only one gold till the time of writing on Thursday, Services remained on top of the table with 41 gold, 28 silver and 26 bronze for a total of 95 medals. Haryana won four of the five gold medals in Archery to consolidate their second place with 29 gold. Maharashtra (24) closed in on Services as far as total medals are concerned with 93 so far.

Advait Page's superior endurance and finishing speed earned him the 800m Freestyle gold in a stunning manner in one of the closest races in the event in India. Trailing Aryan Nehra (Gujarat) and Sajan Prakash for all but the final few meters, he shot past them to be the first to the wall.

Later, Sajan Prakash bossed the 50m Butterfly to complete a sweep of the three events in the stroke. If he was feeling tired after being pushed hard in the 16-lap event by Advait Page and Aryan Nehra, he did not show it as he coasted to victory, making it clear that he brooks no challenge in Butterfly events.

With victories in the 100m Backstroke finals, Olympians Maana Patel and Srihari Nataraj picked up their second individual gold medals each. A start-to-finish effort by Bhavya Sachdeva (Delhi) handed Karnataka teenager Hashika Ramachandra her first defeat in five events here.

Second-seeded Aakarshi Kashyap (Chhattisgarh) dominated top-seeded Malvika Bansod (Maharashtra) to win the Badminton Women's Singles gold at the PDDU Indoor Stadium in Surat. B Sai Praneeth (Telangana) justified his top billing by taking the Men's Singles gold after an hour-long battle with Mithun Manjunath (Karnataka). He won 21-11, 12-21, 21-16.

Ashwini Ponnappa and K Sai Prateek made a perfect start to their journey as a mixed doubles pair, eking out a 21-16, 21-13 victory over Rohan Kapoor and Kanika Kanwal (Delhi). Ashwini Ponnappa was all praise for her 22-year-old partner. "He played a strong game. He hit hard and covered the court well. I'm very happy to win my first ever National Games gold," she said.

The fancied N Sikki Reddy and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand expectedly won the Women's Doubles title for Telangana, making it a happy outing for the State with three gold to show from the Badminton competition.

Telangana had more reason to celebrate when their Women's Basketball team prevented a Tamil Nadu double in Bhavnagar. Telangana beat Tamil Nadu 67-62 in a thriller, after leading 35-31 at half-time. Coming on the heels of their 3x3 side's gold, this win meant that Telangana women would complete the golden double in the National Games. The formidable Tamil Nadu Men's squad beat Punjab 97-89 after holding a 46-42 lead at the break to take the crown.

Services' lone gold today came here, with their experienced divers Surajit Rajbansi and H London Singh winning the top two medals. With good execution of his routines, Surajit Rajbansi tallied 275.35 points, relegating team-mate London Singh who logged 254.75 points. This was the third successive 1-2 for Services in Men's 1m Springboard Diving.

Meanwhile, in the Mahatma Mandir complex in Gandhinagar, World Boxing Championship bronze medalist Jamuna Boro (Assam) came up with an inspiring 5-0 win over lesser-known Nirmal (Nagaland) to open her campaign in style in the Women's 57kg weight division.

Her state-mate and former World Youth champion Ankushita Boro also advanced to the next round after forcing the referee to stop her contest with Telangana's Niharika Gonella in the Women's 66kg.

The results (finals)

Aquatics

Diving

1m Springboard: Surajit Rajbansi (Services) 275.35 points; 2. H London Singh (Services) 254.75; 3. Anuj Shah (Maharashtra) 227.60 points.

Swimming

Men

800m Freestyle: 1. Advait Page (Madhya Pradesh) 8:12.55 (New National Games record. Old: 8:15.49, Sajan Prakash, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. Aryan Nehra (Gujarat) 8:12.31; 2. Sajan Prakash (Kerala) 8:12.55.

100m Backstroke: 1. Srihari Nataraj (Karnataka) 55.80 seconds (New National Games record. Old: 57.62, PS Madhu, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. V Vinayak (Services) and S. Siva (Karnataka) 58.30. (No bronze medal was awarded).

50m Butterfly: 1. Sajan Prakash (Kerala) 25.10 seconds; 2. Rohit Benediction (Tamil Nadu) 25.13; 3. Harsh Saroha (Haryana) 25.23.

Women

1500m Freestyle: 1. Bhavya Sachdeva (Delhi) 17:54.97; 2. Vritti Aggarwal (Telangana) 17:58.28; 3. Hashika Ramachandra (Karnataka) 18:14.67.

100m Backstroke: 1. Maana Patel (Gujarat) 1:04.35 (New National Games record. Old: 1:05.32, Maana Patel, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. Riddhima Veerendrakumar (Karnataka) 1:05.51; 3. Palak Joshi (Maharashtra) 1:07.18.

50m Butterfly: 1. Nina Venkatesh (Karnataka) 28.38 seconds (New National Games record. Old: 28.76, Divya Satija, Rajkot, 2022); 2. Divya Satija (Haryana) 28.63; 3. Tanishi Gupta (Karnataka) 28.68.

Archery (Recurve)

Men

Individual: Atanu Das (West Bengal) beat Gurcharan Besra (Services) 6-4;

Bronze medal play-off: Tarundeep Rai (Services) beat Gaurav Trambak Lambe (Maharashtra) 7-3.

Team: Haryana w.o. Services; Bronze medal play-off: Maharashtra beat Jharkhand 5-4.

Women

Individual: Sangeeta (Haryana) beat Anshika Kumari Singh 6-2;

Bronze medal play-off: Simranjeet Kaur (Punjab) beat Avani (Haryana) 6-2.

Team: Haryana beat Jharkhand 5-4; Bronze medal play-off: Gujarat beat Assam 5-4.

Mixed team: Haryana (Akash and Bhajan Kaur) bt Maharashtra (Gaurav Lambe and Charuta Kamalapur) 5-4; Bronze medal play-off: Jharkhand (Jayanta Talukdar and Komalika Bari) beat Rajasthan 5-3.

Badminton

Men

Singles: B Sai Praneeth (Telangana) beat Mithun Manjunath (Karnataka) 21-11, 12-21, 21-16; Bronze medals: M Raghu (Karnataka) and Aryamann Tandon (Gujarat).

Doubles: PS Ravikrishna and Udaykimar Sankarprasad (Kerala) beat Hariharan Amsakarunan and R Ruban Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 21-19, 21-9; Bronze medals: HV Nithin and Vaibhav (Karnataka) and Shyam Prasad and S Sunjith (Kerala)

Women

Singles: Aakarshi Kashyap (Chhattisgarh) beat Malvika Bansod 21-8, 22-20; Bronze medals: Aditi Bhatt (Uttarakhand) and Tanya Hemnath (Uttarakhand).

Doubles: N Sikki Reddy and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand (Telangana) beat Shikha Gautam and K Ashwini Bhat (Karnataka) 21-14; 21-11. Bronze medals: Kavya Gupta and Khushi Gupta (Delhi) and Mehreen Riza and Arathi Sara Sunil (Kerala).

Mixed Doubles: K Sai Pratheek and Ashwini Ponnappa (Karnataka) beat Rohan Kapoor and Kanika Kanwal (Delhi) 21-15, 21-13. Bronze medals: Hariharan Amsakarunan and VR Nardhana (Tamil Nadu) and S Sunjith and TR Gowrikrishna (Kerala).

Basketball (5x5)

Men: Tamil Nadu beat Punjab 97-89 (Half-time 46-42); Bronze medal play-off: Services beat Karnataka 94-67 (40-31).

Women: Telangana beat Tamil Nadu 67-62 (35-31); Bronze medal play-off: Kerala beat Madhya Pradesh 75-62 (33-32).

Other results:

Football

Men

Group A: Kerala beat Manipur 3-2 (Half-time 0-1); Services beat Odisha 3-0 (1-0).

Women

Group B: Assam beat Maharashtra 2-0 (1-0); Odhsia beat Gujarat 11-0 (7-0).

Golf

Men (first round): Rohan Dhole Patil (Maharashtra) 67; Abhinav Lohan (Haryana) and Karandeep Kochchar (Chandigarh) 68; Ishaan Chawhan (Maharashtra) 71; Arnju Bhati (Maharashtra), Aryan Roopa Anand (Karnataka) and Varoon Parmar (Haryana) 72.

Women (first round): Avani Prashant (Karnataka) 71; Amandeep Kaur (Punjab) 72; Durga Nittur (Karnataka), Gaurika Bishnoi (Haryana), Neha Tripathi (Haryana), Kriti Chowhan (Rajasthan) 73; Nishna Hemesh Patel (Maharashtra) 74; Puneet Kaur Bajwa (Punjab), Heena Kang (Haryana), Keerthana Rajeev (Karnataka), Hitaashee Bakshi (Delhi) and Vani Kapoor (Delhi) 75.

Hockey

Men

Group A: Haryana beat Gujarat 7-0 (Half-time: 3-0); Maharashtra beat West Bengal 2-0 (2-0).

Water Polo

Men

Kerala beat Maharashtra 7-6; Punjab beat Manipur 8-7.

Women

Karnataka beat Manipur 13-2; Bengal beat Kerala 10-8.