Maharashtra became the first team to cross the double century of medals at the 37th National Games Goa 2023 with just two days to go for the closing ceremony.
Services Sports Control Board (SSCB), who are the four-time defending National Games champions having won in 2007, 2011 and 2015 and 2022, are in second position. Haryana, the sports powerhouse of the country, are third.
Maharashtra’s 200th medal came in Triathlon Mixed Relay at the Miramar Beach when women’s individual winner Mansi Mohite covered a deficit of almost two minutes in the anchor-leg to help her team get the better of defending champions Tamil Nadu with a time of 1:51.19 sec on Tuesday. This was Mohite’s fifth gold medal of the Games as she had won the gold in the individual event on Sunday before winning three gold medals in the Biathle event of Modern Pentathlon. Her team-mate in the gold medal winning team, Parth Mirage, ended his campaign with six medals, including four gold and one silver which he won in Modern Pentathlon.
Services and Haryana will have an opportunity to add a gold medal to their tally in handball on Wednesday when they clash in the final at Manohar Parrikar multipurpose indoor stadium at Navelim-South. Haryana have a chance to do a double as their women’s team are also in the final where they meet a formidable Himachal Pradesh.
Elsewhere, Mehuli Ghosh of West Bengal shot an impressive 253.7 to win gold in the Women’s 10 M Air Rifle event at the Manderem Shooting Range. Haryana’s Nancy Mandhotra (251.0) won silver while Swati Chowdhury of West Bengal won the bronze. Mehuli and Nancy had qualified 1-2 for the finals and Narmada Nitin Raju qualified third. She, however, finished seventh in the finals.
Punjab’s Rajeshwari Kumari shot a perfect 50 in two rounds to lead the women’s trap event while Gujarat’s Bakhtyaruddin Malek is leading the men’s event with a score of 49 after the completion of two rounds at the Pernem Shooting Range.
At the Chapora River, Madhya Pradesh ascertained their dominance in Slalom winning all the four gold medals on offer, bringing an end to the canoeing and kayaking events to take their gold medal tally to 27.
Haryana beat neighbours Punjab in a tense shootout to qualify for the finals of women’s hockey. They will face Madhya Pradesh in the finals on Wednesday, who got the better of Jharkhand in another tense shoot-out.
HOSTS EYE 6 GOLD MEDALS IN BOXING
Hosts Goa will have a chance to add half a dozen gold medals in boxing as six of their boxers registered convincing victories in their respective semi-finals at Peddem sports complex, Mapusa.
Sanamacha Chanu led the charge against Radhika of Karnataka in women’s Middleweight category. Former world youth champion Sakshi Chaudhary also sailed into the final of the women’s light flyweight category after beating Manipur’s Ashalata Chanu 5:0. It was, however, end of the road for Niharika in Light weight category as she went down 0:5 against Olympian Simranjit Kaur of Punjab.
In the men’s category, Akash Gorkha, Rajat, Lokesh and Gaurav Chouhan advanced to the final while AK Zamir Roshan and Sai Ayush were knocked out in the semi-finals. In the men’s light welter weight category, Akash came up with a convincing 5-0 UD win against Maharashtra’s Yash Raju to set up a summit clash with Olympian Manish Kaushik.
Results:
Boxing (semis) – Men: Flyweight: AK Zamir Roshan lost to Zoram Muana (Mizoram) 1:4
Light Welter weight: Akash Gorkha bt Yash Raju (Mah) 5:0
Light middleweight: Rajat bt Priyadarshi Singh (Raj) 5:0
Light heavy weight: Lokesh bt Sumit Punia (Raj) 5:0
Heavyweight: Sai Ayush lost to Kapil Pokharia (SSCB) 0:5
Super heavy: Gaurav Chouhan bt Aman Singh (MP) 5:0
Women: Light Flyweight: Sakshi Chaudhary bt Ashalata Chanu (Manipur) 5:0
Light weight: Niharika lost to Simranjeet Kaur (Pun) 0:5
Middleweight: Sanamacha Chanu bt Radhika (Kar) RSC.
Handball (semis) – Women: HP bt Delhi 41-12, Haryana bt Rajasthan 33-18; Men: Haryana bt Chhattisgarh 32-23, SSCB beat Rajasthan 47-32.
Hockey (semis) – Women: Haryana bt Punjab – 2-2 (2-0), Madhya Pradesh bt Jharkhand – 0-0 (2-1); Men: Haryana bt Uttar Pradesh – 1-0 Karnataka bt Maharashtra 5-4.
