Karnataka’s Aneesh S Gowda announced his arrival as the next bright prospect on the senior stage in telling fashion, scripting a fairy-tale victory over seasoned Kerala’s Sajan Prakash in the men’s 200m Freestyle final in the National Games Aquatics competition at the Sardar Patel Aquatics Complex in Rajkot on Sunday.
On a day which saw five National Games records being rewritten in the pool, Aneesh Gowda’s 1:51.88 was the standout effort, showing nerves of steel and immaculate focus to beat the Olympian to the gold. He had won the event at the National Championships last month too.
Assam’s Astha Choudhury improved on the National Games mark that she had set in the heats this morning by winning the Women’s 100m Butterfly final while Hansika Ramachandra (Karnataka) won the Women’s 200m Freestyle with a Games record time of 2:07.08. Karnataka won the Men’s and Women’s 4x100m Freestyle events too with records.
Not to be left behind, track and field competitors also produced four National Games records in five finals at IIT Gandhinagar, with Services’ High Jumper Sarvesh Anil Kushare claring 2.27m and Uttar Pradesh’s Usaid Khan winning the Decathlon with 7121 points.
Yamandeep Sharma (Rajasthan) joined Usaid as the first two men to pass 7000 points in the National Games. The Haryana men’s 4x400m relay quartet and the Tamil Nadu 4×400 squad were the others who came up with New National Games Records.
Commonwealth Games 2018 bronze medallist weightlifter Deepak Lather (Haryana) clinched men’s 81kg gold after a keen battle with Services’ star Ajay Singh at the Mahatma Mandir. Deepak took the top spot on the podium with total lifts of 315kg while Ajay Singh finished a mere 1kg behind, despite lifting two kilos more in Clean and Jerk.
There was no such tussle in the Wrestling arena where World under-20 champion Antim Panghal walked away with the gold by defeating Madhya Pradesh’s Priyanshi Prajapati by fall in the women’s 53kg event without wasting much time on the mat, thanks to her meticulous homework done the night before.
It was in the Wrestling hall that Gujarat picked up one of their two bronze medals today. Khalifa Hinaben won bronze in the 53kg class to become only the second Gujarat grappler in two decades to win a National Games medal. Gujarat were assured of the other medal in Badminton Mixed Team after their team lost to Kerala in the semifinals in Surat. Telangana rallied to defeat Maharashtra to earn themselves a crack at the title against Kerala.
On the opening day of hockey competitions, Sunelit Toppo scored the winner for Odisha in their 3-2 win against Uttar Pradesh in a women’s Group A match at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in Rajkot. Favourites Haryana thumped novices Gujarat 30-1 in another match., Navneet Kaur and Neha leading the scoring with five goals each. For the hosts, Muskan Kureshi got a consolation goal in the 37th minute.
In the morning, defending champions Services’ Rowers were in form, with Jasveer Singh and Iqbal Singh claiming the Men’s Pair title in 6:34.06 and Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar and Ashish taking the Fours crown.
The results:
Aquatics
Diving
3m Springboard: 1. Siddharth Pardeshi (Services) 288.80 points; 2. H London Singh (Services) 277.40; 3. Aditya Giram (Maharashtra) 246.15.
Swimming
Men
200m Freestyle: Aneesh S Gowda (Karnataka) 1:51.88 (New National Games record. Old: 1:52.05, Aaron D’Souza, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. Sajan Prakash (Kerala) 1:52.43; 3. Vishal Grewal (Delhi) 1:53.29.
100m Butterfly: 1. Sajan Prakash (Kerala) 55.32 seconds; 2. Bikram Changmai (Assam) 55.73; 3. Sanu Debnath (West Bengal) 56.11.
4x100m Freestyle Relay: 1. Karnataka 3:27.32 (New National Games Record. Old: 3;32.31, Kerala team, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015): 2. Tamil Nadu 3:29.28; 3. Services 3:30.33
Women
200m Freestyle: 1. Hansika Ramachandra (Karnataka) 2:07.08 (New National Games record. Old: 2:07.46, Shivani Kataria, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. Dhinidhi Desinghu (Karnataka) 2:07.92; 3. Bhavya Sachdeva (Delhi) 2;11.03.
100m Butterfly: 1. Astha Choudhury (Assam) 1:03.38 (New National Games Record. Old: 1:03.90, Astha Choudhury, Rajkot, 2022); 2. Tanishi Gupta (Karnataka) 1:03.51; 3. Nina Venkatesh (Karnataka) 1:03.68..
4x100m Freestyle Relay: 1. Karnataka 4:03.10 (New National Games record. Old: 4:04.57, Maharashtra team, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. Maharashtra 4:09.29; 3. Tamil Nadu 3:14.20.
Athletics
Men
High Jump: 1. Sarvesh Anil Kushare (Services) 2.27m (New National Games record. Old: 2.16, Jithin Thomas, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. T Aromal (Kerala) 2.19; 3. Chethan Balasubramanya (Services)
4x400m relay: 1. Haryana (Gourav, Vikrant Panchal, Ayush Dabas, Angrej Singh) 3:06.58 (New National Games Record. Old: 3:09.51, Kerala team, Ludhiana, 2001); 2. Services 3:07.04; 3. Tamil Nadu 3:09.42.
Decathlon: 1. Usaid Khan (Uttar Pradesh) 7121 points (New National Games record. Old: 6951, M Kumar, Hyderabad, 2002) (100m: 11.11; LJ: 6.83; SP: 11.79; HJ:: 1.86; 400m: 49.70; 110mH: 14.89; DT: 36.07; PV: 4.40; JT: 45.34; 1500m: 4:35.18)’; 2. Yamandeep Sharma (Rajasthan) 7098; 3. Umesh Lamba (Rajasthan) 6758.
Women
Triple Jump: 1. NV Sheena (Kerala) 13.37m; 2. G Karthika (Andhra Pradesh) 12.85; 3. Poorva Sawant (Maharashtra) 12.76.
4x400m Relay: Tamil Nadu (J Dhivya, J Vithya Ramaraj, Olyumbia Stify, Subha Venkatesan) 3:35.32 (New National Games record. Old: 3:35.34, Kerala team, Thiruvananthapuram, 2015); 2. Haryana 3:35.86; 3. Karnataka 3:36.50.
Cycling (New Delhi):
Men
200m sprint: 1. Ronaldo Singh (Manipur); 2. David Beckham E (Andaman and Nicobar); 3. Esow (Andaman and Nicobar).
4000m Team Pursuit: 1. Services (Mula Ram, Birjit Yuman, Dinesh Kumar, Manjit Singh); 2. Punjab (Harshvir Singh, Rajbir Singh, Naman Kapil, Vishwajit Singh); 3. Rajasthan (Poonam Chand, Mukesh Kumar, Biram Ram, Devendra Bishnoi).
Women’s
200m sprint: 1. Mayuri Lute (Maharashtra); 2. Triyasha Pal (West Bengal); 3. N. Nikita (Andaman and Nicobar).
4000m Team Pursuit: 1. Manipur (Khoiram Rejya Devi, M. Sonali Chanu, Thongram Manorama Devi, Irom Matolebi Devi); 2. Haryana (Himanshi Singh, Anshu, Meenakshi, Prabhjot Kaur); 3. Maharashtra (Shushikala Angse, Pooja Danole, Aditi Dongre, Vaishnavi Gabhane).
Gymnastics
Men
Floor Exercises: 1. Gaurav Kumar (Services) 13.267 points; 2. Satyajit Mondal (West Bengal) 13.233; 3. Tushar K (Delhi) 13.167).
Pommel Horse: 1. Siddharth Verma (Uttar Pradesh) 13.1000; 2. Harikrishnan JS ( Kerala) 13.000; 3. Abhijeet Kumar (Services) 12.933.
Roman Rings: 1. Rakesh Kumar (Odisha) 13.033; 2. Aditya Singh Rana (Uttar Pradesh) 12.867; 3. Gaurav Kumar (Services) 12.700.
Vaulting: 1. Satyajit Mondal (West Bengal) 14.08; 2. Siddhant Verma (Uttar Pradesh) 13.57; 3. Sanasam Ruba (Manipur) 13.37.
Parallel Bars: 1. Gaurav Kumar (Services) 13.833; 2. Aditya Singh Rana (Uttar Pradesh) 13.167; 3. Mohammed Bobby (Uttar Pradesh) 13.133.
Women
Vaulting: 1. Protishta Samanta (Tripura) 12.6335 points; 2. Pranati Nayak (West Bengal) 12.533); 3. Shrivarshini (Karnataka) 12.066.
Uneven Bar: 1. Pranati Nayak (West Bengal) 11.800; 2. Pranati Das (West Bengal) 10.200); 3. Mallika Kulshrestra (Delhi) 9.667.
Balancing Beam: 1. Protistha Samanta (Tripura) 11.200; 2. Papia Das (West Bengal) 10. 933; 3. Eshita Rewale (Maharashtra) 10.700.
Floor: 1. Pranati Nayak (West Bengal;) 11.533; 2. Srivarshinee (Karnataka) 11. 333; 3. Pranati Das (West Bengal) 11.267.
Rowing
Men’s Singles Sculls (M1X): 1. Jakhar Khan (Services) 6:39.5; 2. Shobit Pandey (Odisha) 6:54.9; 3. Sukhbir Singh (Delhi) 7:01.3.
Doubles Sculls (M2X): 1. Shangdeep Singh and Parminder Singh (Services) 5:56.7; 2. Kulwinder Singh and Karamjit Singh (Punjab) 6:02.0; 3. Gurpratap Singh and Jaspreet Singh (Jharkhand) 6:05.4.
Coxless Pair (M2-): Services (Jasveer Singh and Iqbal Singh) 6:34.06; 2. Maharashtra 6:42.05; 3. Madhya Pradesh 6:44.08.
Coxless Four (M4-): 1. Services (Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar and Ashish) 5:47.09; 2. Punjab 5:52.09; 3, Rajasthan 5:54.09.
Women
Singles Sculls (W1X): 1. Khushpreet Kaur (Madhya Pradesh) 7:22.0; 2. Kiran Devi (Uttar Pradesh) 7:29.0; 3. Mrunmayee Nilesh Salgaonkar (Maharashtra) 7:33.1.
