National Games: Twin Gold For Jitu Rai, Ronjan Sodhi Wins Double Trap

Diminutive shooting star Jitu Rai struck gold twice with his pistol while Kerala's swimming sensation Sajan Prakash continued to shatter records and accumulate gold medals, adding a fifth to his tally, on the fifth day of competitions in the 35th National Games here on Thursday.

Haryana and Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) were locked in a battle of supremacy with the latter taking the top spot with 29 gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze (49). Haryana were breathing down the defending champions' neck with 25 gold, 11 silver and 6 bronze (42). Maharashtra were placed third with 21 gold 25 silver and 18 bronze (64).

At the shooting range, Jitu took his Games' gold tally to three when he first combined with Gurpreet Singh and Omkar Singh to ensure a top finish for SSCB in the 10m pistol team event before coming out trumps in the individual competition.

Jitu, Gurpreet and Omkar totalled 1724 to finish ahead of Punjab (1712), which was followed by Uttar Pradesh (1711). He added the individual gold with a score of 200.9, steering clear of the challenge presented by teammate Omkar (197.5) and Madhya Pradesh's Amit Kumar Pilaniya (177.9).

"I am very happy with how I have performed. It is very satisfying to get both the gold medals," said the shooter, who had surprisingly settled for a bronze in the 50m pistol individual event earlier in the Games.

Kerala sensation Elizabeth Koshy continued her good form and after the 50m rifle prone gold, she clinched the 50m rifle 3 position gold as well by scoring 445.9. Maharashtra's Vedangi Tuljapurkar (444.7) was the silver-medallist and Tamil Nadu's Sandhya Winfred pulled off the bronze in a star-studded field, which featured among others veteran Anjali Bhagwat and Lajja Gauswami.

Bhagwat, however, claimed the team gold in this category, combining with Vedangi and former world champion Tejaswini Sawant for Maharashtra with a score of 1710. Haryana shot the same score as the gold-medallists but had to be content with a silver medal on account of lesser perfect 10s, while Punjab kept the bronze with a total of 1699. In the 25m women's pistol team competition, the Maharashtra trio of Rahi Sarnobat, Shreya Gawande and Shradha Nalamwar clinched the gold medal with a combined score of 1722, while Haryana's Anisa Sayyed, Anita Devi and and Gauri Sheoran shot 1714 to grab the silver medal. Madhya Pradesh ended up as bronze-medallists with a score of 1697.

Rahi then picked up the individual gold as well with a final score of 21, leaving Surbhi Pathak (Madhya Pradesh) and Shreya to settle for silver and bronze medals respectively.

At the aquatics centre, there was no end to new meet records with as many as five created today. Home sensation Sajan Prakash picked up his fifth gold of the Games in front of a delirious packed house by setting a new 800m freestyle meet record of 8:15.49sec. Maharashtra's Saurabh Sangvekar also breached the meet record but had to settle for a silver after freezing the clock at 8:22.50sec, followed by another home favourite Anand AS (8:27.27sec).

In the 1500m freestyle women's, Maharashtra's Akanksha Vora also set a new meet record with a timing of 17:42.44sec. Previous record holder Richa Mishra, representing Madhya Pradesh, also breached her own mark bu had to be content with a second-place finish with a timing of 17:55.26sec, followed by Maharashtra's Monique Gandhi (18.00.03sec).

Not to be left behind, SSCB's P S Madhu bettered Virdhawal Khade's 100m backstroke meet record by two seconds to win the gold medal with a timing of 57.62sec. Karnataka's Avind Mani (58.18sec) took home the silver, while Madhya Pradesh representative Aaron D'Souza took the bronze (58.46sec). The women's gold in this event was won by Gujarat's Manna Patel (1:5.32sec), beating Maharashtra's Jyotsana Pansare (1:06.09sec) and Karnataka's Vaania KA (1:06.54sec).

Meet records were also shattered in both the men's and women's 50m butterfly with Khade and Pansare emerging as the respective champions. While Khade shattered his own mark to clock 24.73, Pansare bettered the previous record with a timing of 29.12sec.

In the trap shooting events taking place in Thrissur, former world number one Ronjan Sodhi walked away with the men's double trap gold medal. Haryana bagged the second and third spot through Ankur Mittal and Sangram Dahiya respectively.

Rajasthan's Shagun Chowdhary lived upto the favourite tag by clinching the women's double trap gold by shooting a score of 93. SSCB's Varsha Tomar (91) bagged the silver, while Bihar's Shreyasi Singh settled for the bronze medal with a score of 81.

Madhya Pradesh pulled off the team gold after the threesome of Shalini Yashwant, Manisha Keer and Anam shot a score of 225. SSCB finished second with a total of 222, while Tamil Nadu ended third with a score of 199.

In the men's team event, Haryana (395) claimed the gold ahead of Uttar Pradesh (384). The bronze went in the kitty of Madhya Pradesh (354).

After dominating the wrestling mat, Haryana ended up with a strong showing in the weightlifting arena as well. Kavita Devi clinched the upto 75kg women's gold by a whisker after lifting 218kg (97+121), followed by Chandigarh representative Mangte P Kom, who lifted the same weight but lost out on the yellow metal owing to more attempts and higher body weight. Tamil Nadu's P Pounraj was the bronze-medallist with a lift of 191kg (84+107).

In the above 75kg category, it was Punjab's Geeta Rani, who emerged on top after lifting 207kg (95+112), followed by Maharashtra's Komal Wakale (90+105=195) and Karnataka's Kanchan Parashram Munnolkar (86+105=191).

A new meet record was set in the 105kg men's category in which Uttar Pradesh's Himanshu Kumar lifted 358kg (153+205) to a standing ovation to win the gold medal. Uttar Pradesh's Sandeep Kumar (145+188) clinched the silver medal, while Punjab's Jaspreet Singh picked up the bronze (145+187).

On the gymnastics floor, Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Dipa Karmakar clinched the uneven bars and vault gold, taking her overall tally to three, to complete a fine campaign at the Games. Andhra Pradesh picked up the women's individual rhythmic all-round gold through G Meghna, while Jammu and Kashmir's Palak Kaur, part of the gold medal winning group in the team event, settled for a silver. Punjab's Prabhjot Bajwa took home the bronze medal.

However, there was disappointment for Ashish Kumar, who failed to win a medal in the men's rings event where the gold went to SSCB's Rakesh Kumar Patra.

In table tennis, Tamil Nadu's K Shamini won the women's singles title, staging a remarkable recovery to beat West Bengal's Ankita Das 4-3 in the summit clash. The bronze medals went to losing semifinalists Mouma Das (West Bengal) and Madhurika Patkar (Maharashtra).

Tamil Nadu's A Amalraj emerged as the men's singles champion after getting past Gujarat's Harmeet Desai 4-1 in the final. The bronze medals went to Gujarat's Devesh Karia and West Bengal's Raj Mondal.