Khelo India School Games: Maharashtra move into second spot behind Haryana in medal tally

Maharashtra picked up three gold medals to move into the second place, even as Haryana, who had two on Tuesday stayed in the top spot of the medals tally in the first Khelo India School Games.

Maharashtra’s two gold medals came from Weightlifting through Trupti Mane in Girls 58 kg and Boys 62 kg through Jeremy Lalrinnunga, a Mizoram youngster, who is in the Army Institute in Pune. Their third gold came courtesy judoka, Snehal Khaware in 48 kg for Girls.

Manipur lying way down rose sharply to sixth place with a tidy three gold and two silver haul. Two of their gold medals came from weightlifting where Pothshangbam Umeshwori Devi won the Girls 63 kg a little after Lamabam Nilam Devi grabbed the top spot in 53 kg. They also picked up one gold and two silver in judo. The judoka winning the gold was Thangjam Tababi Devi in 44kg.

With two medal packed two days left in the Games, Haryana picked two gold to maintain their lead at the top. They had 22, including two from Judo on Tuesday. Priya topped in Girls 40 kg and Harish won Boys 50 kg category. Haryana’s third medal of the day was also in judo when Nitesh Kumar had a bronze in Boys 55kg.

In Girls weightlifting the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Champion in the 58kg category, Trupti Mane of Maharashtra edged out Sukarna Adak of West Bengal. Mane’s gold medal led Maharashtra to a dominant display in the weightlifting hall, as the state added 10 medals to the four they had picked up on the first day, taking their overall weightlifting medal tally to 14.

In the boys’ 69kg competition, R. Sivalingeswara Sai of Telangana gave his state its first weightlifting medal of the Games, lifting a combined total of 239kg to finish ahead of Dambi Umpe and Tejas Jondhale, both from Maharashtra.

Earlier in the day, Jeremy Lalrinnunga led Maharashtra’s clean sweep of the podium in the boys 62 kg class, while Lamabam Nilam Devi of Manipur caused an upset in the girls’ 53kg class by beating Commonwealth Youth Championship gold medallist Ananya Patil of Maharashtra to second place.

There were two medals on offer in gymnastics, and they were shared one each by West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

The ever-smiling Bidisha Gayen of West Bengal claimed girls’ all-around gymnastics gold. The 12th standard student in Tegharia Vidyapath, Kolkata, Bidisha, names Dipa Karmakar as her idol and she won with a smooth performance. Bidisha’s friend and rival Prothista Samanta was second.

In boys, Allahabad’s Mohammed Anas led an Uttar Pradesh 1-2 in the boy’ all-around gymnastics medals. The 16-year-old finished with 66.50 points after solid efforts in floor exercises and vault helped him build insurance for a sub-par show on the parallel bars.

His school-mate Ankur Sharma whose display on the parallel bars was excellent claimed silver with 65.90 points.

Badminton saw a couple of major upsets. Top seeded Dhruv Rawat of Uttarakhand lost to Govind Krishna in the morning, but the latter himself lost to Sai Charan in the quarters in the evening session. Sai Charan made the semi-finals, where he meets Akash Yadav of Uttar Pradesh.

Also exiting early was second seeded Amit Rathore of MP, who went down to Maharashtra’s Rohan Gurbani, who now takes on Manipur’s Maisnam Meirba in the second semi-final among boys.

Things were more orderly in Girls where Malavika Bhansod of Maharashtra meets Uttarakhand’s Unnati Bisht, while UP’s Amolika Singh meets second seeded Aakarshi Kashyap of Chattisgarh.

Punjab maintained its unbeaten run on the football pitch in the first Khelo India School Games with yet another solid display as its marched into the boys’ final with a 3-1 victory over Haryana at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here today. In the first Girls’ semi-final, Haryana beat West Bengal 8-0. The second semi-finals will be held on Wednesday.