SSCB continue dazzling show at National Games, win 5 more gold
Continuing their sparkling show at 34th National Games, Services Sports Control Board on Wednesday added five more gold medals to their tally, presenting themselves a good chance to put up a better show than what they managed at the last edition.
- Press Trust of India
- Updated: February 24, 2011 12:17 AM IST
Continuing their sparkling show at 34th National Games, Services Sports Control Board on Wednesday added five more gold medals to their tally, presenting themselves a good chance to put up a better show than what they managed at the last edition.
Services are now just four gold medals short of improving their count of the last Games in Guwahati (2007) as they ruled the roost in triathlon in Dhanbad, winning both the individual and team gold.
They also pocketed yellow metal in fencing, wrestling and cycling to take a superb lead with 55 gold, 37 silver and 31 bronze medals.
Manipur added three more golds to their overnight tally to be on a distant second with 39-27-26 while Maharashtra, riding on their performances in tennis and table tennis, improved their gold count to 37 as they occupied third position with another 40 silver and 41 bronze medals haul.
The day 11 of the already chaotic Games was laced with crowd violence and protest by players in a men's hockey semifinal between Jharkhand and Maharashtra that had to be abandoned, while the prize distribution ceremony at the table tennis competitions could not be held due to shortage of the medals.
Indian Davis Cupper Karan Rastogi of Maharashtra and Ratnika Batra of Delhi won the individual men's and women's singles titles.
The men's top seed Rastogi defeated second seed Mithun Murali of Tamil Nadu 6-3 6-2 while unseeded Ratnika toppled top seed Zainab Ali Sajjad of Andhra Pradesh 6-3 6-2. It was a double delight for Delhi as they won both the mens' and doubles gold medals.
In an all Delhi final, second seeds Gopika Kapoor and Prerna Bhambri defeated unseeded Ratnika Batra and Nehel Sahni 6-3 2-6 10-4.
Vivek Shokeen and Ashutosh Singh of Delhi walked away with the men's doubles defeating Ajai Selvaraj and Mithun Murali of Tamil Nadu 6-3 6-0.
The men's hockey semifinal between Jharkhand and Maharashtra had to be abandoned after 55th minutes due to crowd violence in a jam-packed stadium in Morabadi area of the city.
Maharashtra dominated the proceedings as Jharkhand saved a penalty stroke but the visitors got another penalty from a dubious umpiring decision in the 55th minute as both teams were locked goals.
The decision was vehemently protested by the players as it provoked the vociferous crowd who had thronged the stadium as they started hurling missles to the field leading to abandonment.
The match will resume on Thursday from the same position with Maharashtra taking the penalty stroke, competition director Shakeel Kureshi said.
In the other semifinal, Punjab beat Services 3-2. In the women's hockey, Jharkhand and Haryana set up a summit clash with identical 3-1 wins over Madhya Pradesh and Orissa respectively.
International rider Mahitha Mohan today clinched the women's 28km individual road time trial title to end the cycling campaign with three gold medals.
Sombir Singh of Services won the men's 42km individual road time trial title as the five-day cycling competition came to an end here.
Overall, riding on Ch Rameshwari Devi's four gold-medal haul, Manipur topped the cycling medals tally with six gold, five silver and one bronze, followed by Punjab (5-5-7) and Services (4-4-1).
Early on Wednesday, in the men's 42km individual road time trial event, Sombir clocked 55:52 to bag the gold, while Punjab's Harpreet Singh (57:10) and Haryana's Pankaj Kumar (57:17) took the silver and bronze, respectively.
Mahitha reigned supreme in the women's 28km individual road time trial with a timing of 44:23 to cap a spectacular National Games with hat-trick of gold medals.
Manipur's Th Helen Devi (45:06) and Rajasthan's Pana Choudhary (45:30) settled for silver and bronze, respectively. While Rameshwari Devi ended up with four gold (sprint women, 1500m team TT, 3km team pursuit, 500m TT) and a silver medal in Olympic sprint, Mahitha finished with three gold (3km individual pursuit, Oly sprint and 28km road TT) and two silver (1500m team TT, 3km team pursuit).
Archery witnessed two upsets when CWG individual gold medallist Rahul Banerjee of Bengal and team silver medalist C H Jignas of Services crashed out of the elimination round of men?s recurve and compound sections respectively.
However, prominent archers from hosts Jharkhand including CWG gold medalists Deepika Kumari and Jayanta Talukdar made the next round in the competitions held in Jamshedpur. Banerjee went down 2-4 to Uttar Pradesh's Avinash who will now meet Pawan Xalxo in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
In men's 60kg wrestling competition, Services' Rajneesh defeated Vishal Mane of Maharashtra to grab the gold medal while Jharkhand's Krishan Kumar and MP's Jasbir Singh took the bronze medals in the category.
In the women?s 51 kg, Haryana's Babita downed MP's Rachna to claim the gold medal. The hosts got another medal in the wrestling competition with Apoorva settling for bronze along with UP's Anju Chaudhary in the 51 kg category.
Services and Manipur dominated weightlifting competition in Jamshedpur. Jharkhand women opened their account with a gold when H Poireinganbi Chan grabbed the yellow metal with total lift of 183 kgs in the women?s 63 kgs event.
In the men's 77 kgs, E Kandan of Goa emerged champion with a total lift of 281 kgs.
CWG gold medallist K Ravi Kumar of Services set a new National Games record in clean and jerk en route to the title in the 69 kgs men's with a total lift of 286 kgs.