Anurag Thakur visits Jain University Global campus ahead of Khelo India University Games 2021, talks about exclusion of sports from 2026 Commonwealth Games initial list

Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur interacted with Khelo India University Games 2021 (KIUG) participants from various universities. He had visited the Jain University Global campus on Sunday, April 24.

The Sports Minister spoke about looking into matters pertaining to the exclusion of three popular sporting disciplines from the initial program of the 2026 Commonwealth Games (CWG). These disciplines are shooting, wrestling and archery.

The Indian Sports Ministry is addressing the issue and is also looking forward to making important decisions on the matter.

The main reason behind the outrage for dropping the three sporting events has to be India's consistent performances over the years, especially at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

In 2018, the Indian contingent clinched 16 medals in shooting, including seven gold, four silver and five bronze medals. Meanwhile, the wrestlers swept 12 medals, which included five gold, three silver and four bronze medals.

Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, during his interaction with the media, said:

"Sports Ministry would like to ask IOA as to what was the reason that shooting and wrestling were not made a part of Commonwealth Games 2026 and who went to take part in the meeting when this decision was taken. In which situation this decision was taken. After getting all the details we will see what steps need to be taken in order to ensure that the interest of Indian players is not hampered."

As many as 3879 competitors from 200-plus universities will be in action across 20 different disciplines. The Sports Minister also took cognizance of the arrangements to ensure participants have a memorable experience.

Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu declared open the second edition of the Khelo India University Games at the opening ceremony at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium on Sunday (April 24).

Speaking about the KIUG event, Anurag Thakur said:

"From 190 Universities around 3900 athletes will participate in it. This is PM Modi's initiative to provide a platform to sports. Be it Khelo India Youth Games or Khelo India University Games if you see in all the countries through University Games the University going players have done the work of winning the medal for their country. Even we are trying that out students of colleges, professional colleges when they go they should not leave sports and showcase their talent and motivate the youth."

Khelo India University Games kicked off on courts on April 23:

Results:

Volleyball

Men:

Group A

MG University, Kottayam bt University of Calicut 3-0 (25-11, 25-17, 25-23); Guru Nanak Dev University bt Mangalore University 3-1 (25-20, 25-15, 22-25, 28-26);

Group B

Kurukshetra University bt Adamas University 3-1 (25-19, 25-16, 20-25, 25-22); SRM University bt Punjabi University 3-1 (25-14, 25-20, 22-25, 25-17)

Women:

Group A

SRM University bt Punjab University 3-0 (25-15, 25-16, 25-18); Bharathiar University bt University of Mysore 3-0 (25-14, 25-21, 25-16)

Group B

Himachal Pradesh University bt Punjab University 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-18); MG University bt Adamas University 3-1 (25-14, 25-20, 25-27, 25-22)

Basketball:

Men:

Group A

Kurukshetra University bt University of Madras 62-59

Women:

Group A

University of Madras bt Guru Nanak Dev University 88-68; MG University bt University of Mumbai 82-38.

Group B

Jain University bt SRM University 66-60

Badminton:

Women's Team:

Madurai Kamaraj University bt Pt Ravishankar Shukla University 2-0 (Akshaya Arumugam bt Tanya Mallick 21-7, 21-10; Arul Bala Radhakrishnan and Sri Varshini Viswanath bt Ritika Dhruw and Tanya Mallick 21-5, 21-6.)

Jain University Bangalore bt Shivaji University Kolhapur 2-0 (Tanya Hemanth bt Prerana Shivaji Alvekar 21-13, 21-18; Janani Anantha Kumar and Drithi Yatheesh bt Prerana Shivaji Alvekar and Amruta Madhukar Sutar 21-7, 21-10.)

Ranchi University bt Lovely Professional University 2-0 (Deyashi Kanjibiliya bt Rupinder Kaur 21-18, 21-16; Sonali Dubey and Deyashi Kanjibiliya bt Pinky Karki and Yajum Laa 24-26, 21-15, 21-14.)

Osmania University bt Savitribai Phule University 2-1 (Mrunmayee Atul Deshpande bt Vaishnavi Karri 21-16, 21-19; Bhargavi Karri and Vaishnavi Karri bt Siddhi Santosh Jadhav and Riya Rahul Kunjir 21-15, 24-22; Bhargavi Karri bt Riya Rahul Kunjir 28-26, 21-7).

Himachal Pradesh University bt Atal Bihari Vajpayee Vishwavidhyalaya 2-0 (Simran Pandita bt Chanchal Singh 21-13, 21-11; Angelika Shruti David and Jyotishka Thaplaig bt Geetika Pandey and Chanchal Singh 21-6, 21-10.)

Barakatullah University bt Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal 2-0 (Anisha Wase bt Rudrani Jaiswal 21-18, 21-18; Priyanka Pant and Anisha Wase bt Rudrani Jaiswal and Richa Yadav 21-13, 21-11.)

SRM Institute of Science & Technology bt MJP Rohil Khand University 2-0 (Kavipriya Selvam bt Simran Chaudhary 21-14, 21-11; R Thanushree and V Nila bt Simran Chaudhary and Mahi Gumber 21-16, 21-9.)

Panjab University bt Devi Ahilya University 2-0 (Garima Singh bt Mihika Satish Bhargav 21-19, 21-14; Arpita Malik and Garima Singh bt Mihika Satish Bhargav and Mushkan Rakesh Rathore 21-13, 21-16).