Services stamp authority, top National Games by a big distance

Services stamped their authority with eight gold on the penultimate day of the competitions on Friday as they left their rivals far behind on top of the medal tally in the 34th National Games here.

Having improved on their medal count of last edition yesterday, Services continued their dominant march on the top with five gold coming from canoeing and kayaking on Friday as they totalled 70 gold, 50 silver and 42 bronze.

With just two gold medals to be decided on Saturday, in men's and women's table tennis singles, Services will finish on top of medal tally way ahead of their nearest rivals.

Manipur held on to second position with 48-37-33 while Haryana (42-33-40) displaced Maharashtra (40-44-47) from number three spot with most of medals coming from wrestling arena and the triumph in women's hockey.

Hosts Jharkhand had another fruitful day as they bagged six gold medals to jump to fifth with 33-26-37.

Services gained heavily from canoeing and kayaking events at Maithon Dam in Dhanbad where they grabbed five gold medals.

Friday's performance meant that Services had a rich haul of 13 gold and five silver from canoeing and kayaking followed by Kerala at the second spot.

Services also won the men's archery compound team title while another gold of the day came from wrestling. They also won men's handball title as their last gold medal of the Games to end their campaign on a high.

In the previous edition of the Games in Guwahati in 2007, Services had won 59 gold, 46 silver and 37 bronze medals. Wrestling arena was dominated by Haryana who won 14 gold medals including today's haul of five.

Haryana picked up the first of their five gold medals when Amit Kumar overpowered Services' Pankaj Rana in the final of the men's 66kg freestyle category.

Vinod added the second gold medal of the day for Haryana by defeating Delhi's Sukhvinder in a closely-fought bout in the men's 55kg freestyle.

Haryana bagged their third gold of the day when Nirmala won the women's 48 kg freestyle final against Delhi's Sumel. In men's 55 kg Greco Roman style, Haryana's Rajendra Kumar won the gold medal by defeating Delhi's Manjeet.

In men's 120 kg Greco-Roman style, Haryana's Dharmedra defeated Jharkhand's Rishi Pal to win the gold medal. Services' Suresh Kumar emerged winner in the 66kg Greco Roman freestyle final against Punjab's Harmendra.

In women's hockey, Haryana beat Jharkhand 3-1 to clinch the title. Surinder Kaur struck twice while Joydeep Kaur slammed the board. The hosts reduced the margin through Kanti. Punjab defeated Jharkhand 2-0 to emerge winners in men's hockey.

After facing waves of attacks from the hosts throughout the game, Ravi Pal and Sarvanjit Singh struck in 55th and 64th minutes against the run of the play to give Punjab the gold medal, much to the disappointment of a capacity home crowd. Jharkhand won six gold, one silver and two bronze to lead the medal chart in weightlifting competition in Jamshedpur. On the last day today, Jharkhand won two gold while Karnataka bagged one.

In the men's +105kg, Jharkhand's Sarabjit Kanda finished on top with a total lift of 345 kg (160+185). Jharkhand's Gurmeet Singh grabbed another gold in the men's 105 kg, lifting a total of 303kg.

Binitha Devi won the gold for Karnataka in women's +75 kg with a lift of 182kg.

In archery, Jharkhand salvaged some pride by winning three gold medals in the team events. on Thursday, they had a dismal performance in the men and women's recurve and compound individual events.

Jharkhand team comprised CWG gold medallist Deepika Kumari, Laxmi Rani Majhi, Rimil Biruli and Seema Verma and scored 218 points for the women's recurve gold.

The hosts also won the men's recurve team gold through the quartet of Atanu Das, Mangal Singh Champia, Jayant Talukdar and Pawan Xalxo.

Jharkhand struck a hat-trick of gold medals in women's compound event through the quartet of Bheigyabati Chanu, Jhanu Hansdah, Namita Yadav and Manjudha Soy.

Services team of L Haridas, Ch Jignas, C Srithar and M chinglen Sana won the men's compund team gold.

In tennis, Indian Davis Cupper Karan Rastogi and Delhi girl Ratnika Batra clinched gold medals.

The men's singles champion helped Maharashtra beat Delhi 2-1 for the men's title.

Maharashtra team also had Shahbaaz Khan, Nitin Kirtane and Ronak Manjuja as they got the better of Delhi quartet of Vivek Shokeen, Kunal Anand, Saurabh Singh and Ashutosh Singh.

Delhi, however, made up of their men's team loss as the women's quartet of Ratnika Batra, Gopika Kapoor, Prerna Bhambri and Nehel Sahni thrashed Andhra's Sushma, Nidhi, Sowjanya and Zainab for the title.

In judo, Haryana's Narender earned the state their third gold today as they finished on top on the last day. Narender defeated Bijendra Singh of Services for the men's open weight title as Uday Vir of Delhi and Satiender Pal Singh of Punjab won bronze medals.

Chana Navjot of Punjab beat home state's L Dinit for the men's 60kg title while Rabi of Delhi and Veer Bahadur of Uttar Pradesh finished with bronze medals.

Jharkhand bagged a gold through Bembem in the below 48kg category after defeating Haryana's Rajani as Karnataka's Kutuja Multani and Manipur's Tombi Devi Khumujam had to settle for bronze medals.

Karnataka girl Rohini Patil defeated Manipur's Brojeshori Devi Lourembam in the open weight final as Rajwinder (Punjab) and Divya (Haryana) bagged the bronze medals.

Meanwhile, Services had a five-star effort in canoeing and kayaking competition.

The duo of Digvijay Negi and Bhupender Pundir beat Haryana's Kuldeep Kumar and Vinod in the 200m men's double kayak to lead Services gold rush at Maithon Dam in Dhanbad.

The quartet of Yendapha Arambam, Amit KUmar, Vijay Kumar and Bhupender Pundir won the 200m men's four kayak as they finished ahead of Kerala's Manglem Singh, Shyam, Jayanta KUmar Singh and Genva Morris.

Jemsboy Oinam of Services defeated Rahul Singh Kongjengbam of Manipur for the 200m men's single canoeing where Adil Mohiudin Bhat of Jammu and Kashmir won the bronze.

Gurdeep Singh and Amarjeet of Services beat the pair of Somarjit Singh and and Sawlabow of Andhra Pradesh for the 200m men's double canoe gold.

The fifth gold of Services came in 200m men's four canoeing through the quartet of Sanjit Maisanam, Johnson Meitei Ningthoujam and Dev Oinam.

In table tennis, Achanta Sharath Kamal clinched the mixed doubles title with national champion Kumaresan Shamini as the the Indian ace lined himself up for another gold after storming into the men's singles summit clash.

Sharath Kamal and Shamini bounced back from two sets down to defeat the Bengal duo of Sourav Saha and Ankita Das 8-11, 4-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-4.

Sharath Kamal's hopes of another title today was dashed when he along with G Vinod lost out to the Bengal pair of Sourav Chakraborty and Anirban Nandi 9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 8-11 in men's doubles final.

Sharath Kamal earlier stormed into the men's singles summit clash after thrashing Bengal's Raj Mondal 11-3, 11-4, 11-4, 11-9 as he remained in contention for a hat-trick of titles.

The world number 40 had earlier led Tamil Nadu to the men's title.

These are incidentally his first titles in the National Games in his third outing.

The Tamil Nadu star will face Bengal's Anirban Nandi who made a spectacular fightback to beat statemate Sourav Chakraborty 4-11, 3-11, 10-12, 12-10, 11-6, 12-10, 11-2 in a marathon seven-setter.

In the women's singles final, Shamini will take on Maharashtra's Madhurika Patkar.

Shamini sailed past Maharashtra's Mamta Prabhu 11-13, 11-4, 11-7, 11-9, 11-8 while Patkar stunned Bengal's Mouma Das 12-10, 11-9, 11-13, 11-4, 11-8.

Patkar and Pooja Sahasrabudhe won the gold medal for Maharashtra in the women's doubles as they beat statemates Mamta and Ashlesha Bodas 13-11, 11-8, 11-9.

Both the men's and women's singles title clashes tomorrow will be the last two gold medals that will be on offer on the concluding day.

In the last event of the day, Bengal won the men's football title beating Punjab by a solitary goal.