The 37th National Games witnessed the start of Gymnastics event at Peddem Sports Complex, Mapusa, on Monday. While the glory belonged to gymnasts from Services and West Bengal, the hosts team will have to work hard to make an impression in gymnastics and other disciplines although Goa gave a good account of themselves in Netball without much luck.
Goa men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics team finished sixth while the Netball teams were knocked out in the group stage despite punching above their weight.
Reaching the knockout stage was always going to be difficult for Goa’s Netball teams. But to their credit, the men’s team put up a fighting display against Maharashtra and then against defending champions Haryana to lose by an identical scoreline of 56-52.
Against Haryana, the host team were locked at 25-25 at half time, raising hopes of an upset. But that
was not to be as the experienced Haryana team started strong after the break and Goa were then left playing catch up.
Over at the Manohar Parrikar Indoor Stadium in Navelim, Goa’s basketball team ran Delhi close in Pool A before going down 61-81 while the women were beaten 60-34 by Uttar Pradesh.
In the gymnastic competition, Goa’s women’s artistic team finished sixth with a total score of 128.75 while the men scored a total of 218.50 points to finish on the same spot in standings.
Meanwhile, Services Sports Promotion Board and West Bengal expectedly bagged the men’s and
women’s artistic team gold medals. The Services team comprising Abhijeet Kumar, Anas Ali Shaikh, Gaurav Kumar, Rakesh Kumar Patra, Saif Sadik Tamboli and Tapeswaranath Das scored a total of 249.35 points, over seven points better than second placed Uttar Pradesh (242.10). Haryana bagged the bronze medal with a combined score of 240.35.
Later in the day, West Bengal once again proved that they are the leaders in artistic gymnastics in women category as they scored a total of 175.90 points to grab the state’s first gold in the Games. Maharashtra took the silver medal with a total of 166.95 while Uttar Pradesh were third with 142.30 points, having a point deducted from the overall score.
