National Games: Day two medal roundup

Jitu Rai failed to impress in the individual category

Day two of the National Games like the first day was dominated by Kerala’s Sajan Prakash, who won his third gold and fourth medal of the tournament. He finished a massive 12 seconds ahead of his closes rival Saurabh Sangvekar to secure first place in the 1500m freestyle event.

The biggest upset of the day came when Commonwealth champion Jitu Rai failed to win gold in the 50m pistol category.

Day two saw Haryana maintain their position at the top of the table with 10 golds and 14 medals in total. Services came in a close second with 8 golds and 13 medals. Maharashtra rounded of the top three with six golds and 16 medals in total.

Weightlifting

In the 56 kg category, Andhra Pradesh lifter Srinivasa Rao Valluri edged out Dipak Ramesh Mahajan from Chandigarh by five points to win gold. Mohanasundaram S Shanmugham of Kerala won bronze.

The 62 kg category saw Chhatisgarh register a gold medal through Rustam Sarang, who finished two points ahead Swapnil Ghagare from the Services. Odisha’s Sushant Sahu won bronze.

In the Women’s 48 kg category, 2014 Commonwealth Games champion, Manipur’s Sanjita Chanu Khumukcham won gold in style. She won with a seven point lead over CWG silver medallist Mirabai Saikhom. Andhra Pradesh’s Usha Bangaru won bronze.

Table Tennis

Maharashtra pulled off the upset of the day as they defeated a very strong West Bengal side in the women’s team event, who had the number one ranked player in the world, Mouma Das. Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra shared the spoils for third.

In the men’s team event, Gujarat had to settle for a silver medal in their first ever appearance in the final at the National Games. Tamil Nadu emerged victorious in the tie despite going down 0-2 after two matches. Maharashtra and West Bengal shared the bronze medal.

Shooting

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Jitu Rai disappointed in the 50m pistol category as he finished in third position. Prakash Nangappa won gold with an impressive score of 190.1, three points ahead of Amanpreet Singh from Punjab. Rai was more than 20 points of the mark with a score of 168.1.

The 10m rifle women’s event saw Maharashtra dominate. Pooja Ghatkar won gold ahead of Ayonika Paul . However, both players had identical scores, only Ghatkar had a stronger final shot. Rajastahan’s Apurvi Chandela winning bronze with a score of 187.4.

Women’s trap so no surprises as Seema Tomar from Services won gold with a score of 22.0. She was four points ahead of Rajeshwari Kumari from Punjab. Tamil Nadu’s Asiya Khilji finished with the bronze medal.

Swimming

Bronze medallist from 2014 Asian Games Sandeep Sejwal won gold in the 200m breast-stroke event. The Kerala duo of Anoop Augustine and Arun Sivankutty won silver and bronze respectively.

As mentioned above Sajan secured the gold ahead of Sangvekar in the 1500m freestyle category. Anand Shylaja finished in the bronze medal position for Kerala.

In the Women’s 4x100m Relay Medley Women, the Maharashtra girls came out on top clocking 4:32.2. Karnataka came in second while Tamil Nadu finished third to win bronze.

Gymnastics

Women: West Bengal won the gold medal, while Maharashtra got another silver medal. Punjab rounded off the podium finishes with a bronze medal in the team event.

Men: Services came out on top in Gymnastics team event ahead of Uttar Pradesh, who won silver, and West Bengal, who had to settle for the bronze.