After an exciting second day, athletes warmed up to competition on Day 3 of the competition.
Football
The prelims are currently underway and teams will look to have a good start before the business end of the tournament. Odisha outplayed West Bengal in alargely one-sided contest in women’s section. Pinky Bompal Magar opened the scoring for Odisha in the 21st minute courtesy a free kick. Odisha led 1-0 at the end of first half. Jabamani Soren doubled the lead five minutes into the second half. West Bengal did not convert their chances and defense struggled to contain Odisha’s strikers. They paid the price as Pyari Xaxi scored twice late in the second half to win this encounter 4-0.
In the second match featuring women, Kerala beat Delhi 3-0. Nikhila scored twice in the first half and Aswathi scored in the 70th minute to enjoy a comfortable win in front of the home crowd.
In a high scoring men’s match, Maharashtra beat Goa 5-3. Maharashtra led 3-1 at the end of first half thanks to goals from Sandesh Gadkari, Mohamed Irshad and Vijith Shetty. Marcus Mascarenhas and Micky Fernandes scored three goals amongst themselves to get Goa back on track, but Irshad’s hattrick sealed it for Maharashtra.
Khokho
In the men’s prelims, Maharashtra overcame stiff resistance from Keral to prevail 17-11. Puducherry hung on in dying stages of the match to edge Chhattisgarh 10-9. In the women’s prelims, Kerala beat West Bengal 16-8, while Puducherry beat Delhi 7-6 in a close contest.
Netball
In the Women’s prelims, Uttar Pradesh got a walkover in their match against Maharashtra. Haryana got the better of Kerala 24-17, while Punjab dominated Maharashtra to win 46-11. Karnataka beat West Bengal 51-12 in another one-sided contest.
In the Men’s prelims, Rajasthan beat Kerala 21-19, even though Kerala led by 10 points at the end of first quarter. Karnataka beat Maharashtra 35-30 by stringing together few successive points in the second quarter. Haryana and Punjab emerged victorious in their matches against Kerala and Maharashtra respectively.
Shooting
Vijay Kumar struck gold in the 25 m center fire pistol with a score of 583. Samresh Jung and Pemba Tamang settled for silver and bronze with scores of 576 and 575 respectively.
In 50 m Rifle Prone, Chain Singh Manhas held his nerve to edge out Samsher Singh for the gold medal. Manhas scored 205.8 to Singh’s 204.8. Joydeep Karmakar had to be content with the bronze with a total of 183.1.
Manavjit Singh Sandhu claimed gold in trap in a close contest with Anwer Sultan. Anirudh Singh won bronze.
In the 50 m Rifle Prone for women, Elizabeth Susan Koshy won gold with a commanding score of 618.5. Meena added another silver to Haryana’s kitty as she scored 617.8, while Raj Chaudhary settled for bronze with a total of 616.6.
Swimming
Manna Patel of Gujarat clinched gold in the 200 m back stroke with a timing of 2:23.21 s. Vaania won silver in 2:25.06s, while Madhya Pradesh’s Richa won bronze in 2:35.31s.
In the 400 m individual medley, Arvind Mani added second gold in Karnataka’s kitty with a strong performance. Mani finished in 4:37.75s to outlast West Bengal pair of Supriya Mandal and Sanu Debnath.
In the 200 m back stroke for men, Services’ Madhu claimed top honors with a timing of 2:5.66 s. Rohit Havaldar and Sethu Manickavel came second and third respectively.
Richa struck back in 400 m individual medley to win gold for Madhya Pradesh in 5:17.15 s. Aaksnksha Vora and Meenakshi won silver and bronze respectively.
Virdhawal Khade added another medal in 50 m free style as he finished in 23 s. Aaron and Anshul Kothari claimed second and third places respectively.
Aditi Dhumatkar and Avantika Chavan won two medals for Maharashtra in the 50 m freestyle event. Aditi finished first in 26.9 s, while Avantika won bronze in 27.36s. Shivani Katria won the silver medal in 27.26 s.
Squash
In the men’s singles semifnals, Saurav Ghosal beat Gaurav Nandrajoy 11-4, 11-5, 11-1. Harinder Pal Sandhu booked his place in the final with a 11-8, 20-18, 11-7 win over TamilNadu’s Ravi Dixit.
In the women’s singles semifinals, Joshana Chinappa beat Maharashtra’s Urwashi Joshi 11-5, 11-8, 11-2. Lakshya R made sure it a all TamilNadu final as she outclassed Uttar Pradesh’s Sachika Ingale 11-9, 12-10, 14-12.
Weightlifting
Satish Sivalingam was dominant in the 77 Kg category to claim the gold with a total lift of 307 Kg. Shubham Verma and Ajaydeep Sarang won silver and bronze with lifts of 294 Kg and 285 Kg respectively.
In the 63 Kg women’s category, Jasveer Kaur won gold with a lift of 212 Kg. Vandna Gupta claimed silver with a total lift of 206 Kg, while Rakhi Halder won bronze with a score of 203.
Vikas Thakur, Fajaru Nasik and Jasvant Singh were placed first, second and third respectively in the 85 Kg category.