Deepika, Sarita bite dust, Services improve their tally

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Deepika Kumari and former boxing world champion Laishram Sarita Devi bit the dust on a day of upsets while Services improved on their last edition medal count to reign supreme in the 34th National Games here on Thursday.

Jharkhand's star archer Deepika Kumari lost in the final to Assam's Prativa Boro to provide the biggest jolt for the hosts, while the boxing ring provided another stunner when 21-year-old Pinky Jangra knocked out reigning Asian champion Sarita Devi in 51kg.

Inspired by Pinky's performance, Haryana grabbed seven gold medals in boxing to shoot themselves to number five spot ahead of Kerala on the 12th day of competitions in the multi-sporting event.

Putting their big disappointment in archery behind, hosts Jharkhand, however, did well in boxing, claiming seven gold while pocketing three yellow metals in weightlifting.

In men's hockey, Jharkhand stormed into the final after beating Maharashtra 2-1 in a semifinal that had to be resumed this morning from the 55th minute after it was stopped yesterday because of crowd trouble.

Having made it to the finals in both men's and women's sections, Jharkhand are aiming for a double in hockey. The men's team will take on Punjab, while they face Haryana in the women's section on Friday.

17-year-old Indian archery sensation, Deepika Kumari faltered in the women's recurve final to settle for a silver medal.

Deepika, who was given the honour by the hosts state to light the Games' flame, fell to intense pressure as the Indian Olympic hope lost out 4-6 to a cool and composed Assam girl Prativa in a nerve-wracking final in Jamshedpur.

Meanwhile, Services surpassed their medal haul of previous edition of the Games in Guwahati four years ago, after taking their tally to 62 gold, 45 silver and 38 bronze to race way ahead of their rivals for the top spot.

Manipur too continued their march on the second spot with 46-33-29 while Maharashtra remained on third spot with 38-42-44. Delhi occupy the fourth place with 30-22-31.

Riding on the performance of boxers, Haryana were on fourth position with a tally of 33-28-39 as they pushed Delhi (31-22-33) and Kerala (27-25-26) to fifth and sixth positions respectively. Jharkhand (27-21-35) were on seventh place.

Haryana gained heavily from the performance of their grapplers, winning five more gold medals on the second day of the wrestling competitions today, taking their total to nine yellow metals.

Haryana's Commonwealth gold medallist Mausham Khatri hardly stretched to beat Jharkhand's Narendra for the gold in the 96 kg freestyle men's competition.

Khatri's statemate Amit Kumar also finished on the top of the 96 kg Greco-Roman style bout defeating Services' Ashok Kumar. UP's Harendra and Punjab's Gagandeep took the bronze medals.

Haryana grappler Suman Kundu overpowered Punjab's Naujit Rakhi to take the gold in the women's 57 kg competition while Delhi's Jyoti and MP's Naujit Rani got the bronze medals. Anita of Haryana won her bout over Manipur's N Tombi Devi in the women's 63 kg while UP's Rajni and MP's Manu Sekhavat got the bronze medals.

In the 84 kg Greco-Roman style competition, Haryana's Rinku became the champion after defeating Punjab's Vikram Sharma.

In the women's 72 kg bout, Punjab's Gursharan defeated Jharkhand's Nikki to take the yellow metal while Haryana's Anmol and UP?s Anshu Tomar returned with bronze medals. Himachal Pradesh opened their account in wrestling when John Choudhary beat Haryana's Ranbir to win the yellow metal.

International rider Rameshori Devi won her fifth gold medal in cycling when she, along with Sunita Devi Yanglem, Suchitra Devi Konsam and Helen Devi Thockchom won the elite women's 42km road time trial.

In the women's final the Manipur quartet clocked 1::05:17.88 seconds for the title while Kerala's Deepa Chandran, Mahitha Mohan, Rajani Remanan and Kezia Verghese clocked 1::07:59.02 for the silver medal. Punjab's Gurpreet Kaur, Sandeep Kaur, Rekha Rani and Mamta Kumari stopped the clock at 1::08:19.31 for the bronze.

Services clinched the elite men's 70km road TT gold with Satbir Singh, Sombir Mahala, Vinod Malik and Atul Singh clocking 1::31:19.88. Punjab's Hitraj Singh, Sarpreet Singh, Amanadeep Singh and Harpreet Singh (1::33:20.40) settled for the silver.

Delhi's Vineet Kumar, Aman Kumar, Arvind Panwar and Sachin Kumar bagged the bronze with 1::35:48.26.