Khelo India 2019: Likith picks three swimming gold for Karnataka but Maharashtra stay ahead in the overall tally; Day 6 roundup

Pune, Jan 14: Karnataka made the biggest gains on Monday, but there was no change in the top-four positions on the Overall Medals Tally as hosts Maharashtra stayed on top of the heap with 59 gold, 48 silver and 59 bronze for a total of 166 medals.

Delhi (43 gold, 31 silver, and 41 bronze) stayed in the second place while Haryana also stayed put in third despite winning three gold during the day. Haryana, who had gold in hockey, swimming and women’s weightlifting - have 36 gold, 34 silver, and 37 bronze and a total of 107 medals.

Karnataka also stayed where they started in fourth place despite winning six gold medals during the day. They now have 25 gold, 22 silver, and 13 bronze.

Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh swapped places as TN moved to fifth and UP slipped to sixth. TN picked four gold, while UP gained two.

Swimming had the most gold at stake with 15 gold up for grabs. Karnataka picked up six of them, with SP Likith accounting for two of them in the 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke.

Boys U 21 50m breaststroke medal ceremony - From L to R - Danish Suresh (TN), Likith SP (KA), and

Ans

h Arora (UP)

Monday’s big winner was Karnataka swimmer, SP Likith, who won three gold medals during the course of the day and it now takes his tally from these Games to five gold medals. Apart from 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke he also won a gold from 4 x 100m freestyle. He has already won 100m breaststroke and another gold from another relay, the 4 x 100m medley.

Srihari Nataraj, who was Likith’s teammate in the relay today, also has five gold medals from these Games.

Likith, 20, trains at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre in Bengaluru. He is from Jain University in Bengaluru and excelled at the Inter-University Swimming and also won two silver medals at the Nationals in Trivandrum in 2018.

Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu picked two golds each, while Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh won one each.

Maharashtra’s two golds came from Kenisha Gupta in 50 freestyle and Apeksha Fernandes in 200m butterfly. It was Kenisha’s third individual gold and Apeksha’s second.

In the first team gold, Haryana’s fancied Under-17 Boys team beat Punjab 1-0 in the hockey final in Mumbai.

The shooting range saw Sidhu twins from Chandigarh, Udhayveer, and Vijayveer pick two medals. Udhayveer won the gold in Under-17 Boys 10m Air Pistol, while his twin, Vijayveer had to settle for silver as he was beaten by a mere 0.2 points in the 10m Air Pistol for Under-21 Boys. Punjab’s Arjun Singh Cheema, the Junior World Cup gold medallist, beat Vijayveer to the gold.