Panjab University took it right down to the wire as it clinched two gold medals on the final day to emerge as the champion of the inaugural edition of the Khelo India University Games, that concluded on Sunday.
Panjab's pugilists won two crucial golds to get the team on level terms with Pune University on 17 gold medals, but the former's total tally of 46 medals as opposed to Pune's 37 saw it runaway as the winner. Punjabi University finished third with 33 medals.
“The first edition of the KIUG has been truly successful. We aim to organise the Khelo India University Games regularly and make it, along with the Youth Games, the platform that paves the way for our future Olympic medallists. Our aim is to get into the top 10 in the medals tally after the 2028 Olympics," Union Minister of Youth Affair and Sports Kiren Rijiju said at the closing ceremony, which was graced by top dignitaries including Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Indian Olympic Association president Narinder Batra.
While a bunch of records were broken, swimmers Siddhant Sejwal of Panjab University and Sadhvi Dhuri of Pune University were the best athletes at the Games with five gold medals each.
The other top performers included Harmila Bains, who completed the 1500m-800m double, and long-distance runner Narendra Pratap who won the 10,000m and 5,000m events. Weightlifter Sanket Mahadev Sargar was also impressive as he broke the national record in the men's 55kg he lifted a total of 244 kgs bag the gold.
Olympian Dutee Chand, who was the biggest name here, set a new National University record on her way to the 100m crown and followed it up with another gold in the 200m .
Talking about the Games, she said, “I feel it was a great competition and was well organised. It was done on par with the Asian Games. All the participants were happy with the food, accommodation and training facilities. And all the competitions began on time and the participants got enough rest. There have been no complaints at all.”
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