Defending champions Maharashtra grabbed 3 gold medals to defeat hosts Haryana from the top spot in the Khelo India Youth Games.
For the very first time since the Games began on 4th of June, the hosts drew a blank in their gold medal collection on 8th day of the tournament.
Nevertheless, with 2 days spare of competitions, Haryana (36 gold, 36 silver, 39 bronze) will depend on their boxing contingent for a gold rush even as archers Tamanna and Ridhi have assured a 1-2 finish for the home team when they take on each other in a fixed summit clash of the girls recurve event at the Panjab University campus in Chandigarh.
Maharashtra pocketed a gold medal each in tennis, table tennis and swimming, which expanded their overall tally to 98, consisting of 37 gold, 33 silver and 28 bronze medals.
Kerala came up as the biggest gainers of the day, collecting a total of 11 gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze in their conventional sport kalaripayattu to jump to the 5th spot with 13 gold medals after Karnataka’s 21 and Manipur’s 16.
Maharashtra’s Akanksha Nitture triumphed the girl’s singles tennis title, trouncing Karnataka’s Sunita Maruri 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 6-4 whilst Diya Chitale and Swastika Ghosh got together to beat Haryana duo of Suhana Saini and Prithoki Chakraborti 14-12, 11-9, 11-6 in table tennis girls doubles.
Swimmer Apeksha Fernandes then set Maharashtra ahead by triumphing the 200m girl’s individual medley, setting a new meet mark of 2:25.18 seconds in the process.
However, it was once again the Karnataka swimmers pocketing 4 of the 6 gold medals on offer on the day.
