Swimming sensation Rehan Poncha of Karnataka has emerged as the most valuable athlete as he won his ninth gold on Friday.
Rehan Poncha emerges Most Valuable Athlete as fight to top medal tally intensifies
GUWAHATI: Swimming sensation Rehan Poncha of Karnataka has emerged as the most valuable athlete as he won his ninth gold on Friday even as Manipur and Services are fighting it out for the top slot at the 33rd National Games.
As the extravaganza enters the home stretch, the ding-dong battle between Manipur and Services for the medal tally supremacy is on.
Veerdhaval Khade provided the cheer for Maharashtra, signing off from the Games on a high note with a double gold medal and also scripting two games records as the swimming events concluded.
Meanwhile, hosts Assam have emerged as a surprised package as they took the third spot after the end of the seventh day.
Turn tables
Manipur was pipped by Services early in the day for the first time since the beginning of the Games but the North Eastern state regained the top spot late in the evening with a burst of gold medals from sepak takraw and boxing.
Khade, the 15-year-old boy from Kolhapur, bagged the gold medal in the 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly events scripting records in both the events. He has six gold and two silver and a bronze.
Khade’s double
In the 100m freestyle, Khade clocked 52.80secs to bag the top medal and bettered Kerala’s Sebastian Xavier’s 53.94secs record in 1997. The silver went to Services’ T.A. Sujith (54.67secs) and Aniketh D’Souza of Karnataka won the bronze.
Khade also set his second record in the 50m butterfly, clocking 26.03secs surpassing the mark of 26.52secs set by Akbar Ali Mir of West Bengal in 2002. In the same event, Kerela’s K. Rajiv pocketed the silver in 26.69secs and the bronze went to Poncha (27.04secs).
Poncha continued to strike it rich in the pool and won the 100m breaststroke on the final day of the swimming event.
Richa Mishra was a big let down as she could not increase her haul of the eight gold medals, as young Assam swimmer Fariha Zaman pushed her to second place in the 50m breaststroke. In the 100m breaststroke, the Delhi girl was even worse as she ended poor fifth.
The Karnataka dominated the pool with 20 gold medals with Rehan picking up nine while Sikha Tandon got six more.
In badminton, notwithstanding the likes of Chetan Anand in the ranks, Andhra Pradesh could not stop Kerala from taking the men’s team gold. In the nail-biting final, where the last rubber decided the results, Kerala won 3-2 winning the crucial second doubles match comfortably.
In the women’s section, a Saina Nehwal-inspired Andhra Pradesh drubbed Maharashtra 2-0 to take the top spot. In archery, Upashana from Uttar Pradesh staged an upset by defeating reigning national champion Dola Banerjee of Jharkhand to win the gold in recurve round. Chekrowelosewro of Nagaland emerged as the dark horse to win the bronze in the same event.
Haryana bagged three gold medals so far in the boxing event through Jai Bhagwan (60kg), Jitendra (51kg) and Nabjit Singh (54kg). Punjab will meet Services in the men’s hockey final.
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