Thiruvananthapuram bags gold medals in Kerala Olympic Games

The first gold medals in the maiden Kerala Olympic Games were bagged by Andhra Pradesh native T Varun and Manipur native T Praseetha in the taekwondo competition on Sunday.

Varun bagged the medal in the 68-kg category while Praseetha in the 46 kg category. Varun had won the gold in the All India University Games this year. Praseetha participated in the 2018 world championship held in Tunisia. Both of them are students of Thiruvananthapuram SAI (Sports Authority of India). Only the finals of taekwondo took place on the first day of the Kerala Games.

The first-ever Kerala Olympic Games was inaugurated on Saturday by State Sports Minister V Abdurahiman at the university stadium. The games kicked-off today with a 21.1-km half-marathon by the State Olympic association. Shivam Yadav in the men's category and Preenu Yadav in the women's emerged as the winners. At least 2,000 participants from across the country took part in the race, the organisers said.

The Kerala Olympic Games is a mega multi-sporting event organised by the Kerala Olympics Association (KOA). The games would go on till May 10. The Games was originally slated to be held in mid-February but was rescheduled to May in the wake of the pandemic. In December, State Education Minister Sivankutty unveiled the mascot of the Games -- a rabbit named Neeraj -- in honour of Neeraj Chopra, the first Indian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal.

Athletics, aquatics, archery, basketball, boxing, badminton, cycling, football, wrestling, hockey, judo, karate, kambadi (kabaddi), kho-kho, netball, rugby, shooting, wushu, tennis, table-tennis, taekwondo, volleyball and weight-lifting would be part of the Games. Athletes and teams participating in the Kerala Olympic Games were selected through district-level events. More than 8,000 sportspersons are expected to participate in the Games.