SERVICES made its debut in the equestrian event of the National Games and easily captured the majority of the medals at stake. With the best of mounts, resources and facilities at its disposal, the domination of Services did not surprise anyone.
From eight events, Services garnered four golds and three bronze medals while winning both the individual and team honours in the three-day event. Gulab Singh was the winner of this gruelling event.
In sharp contrast stood Punjab's tally. The host, which had collected six golds, two silvers and a bronze in the previous edition of the Games at Imphal in 1999, could manage just one medal of each variety.
The weather was just right for hosting the event at Jalandhar where the stage was set at the sprawling PAP grounds. Overall, the results produced very few surprises with the hand-picked probables, from which the team for the next year's Asian Games will be selected, staying in the forefront.
Major Sunil Shivdas kept his date with the dressage gold in style, leaving M. S. Rathore and Sandeep Dewan with the lesser medals. It was a much-needed victory for Shivdas, especially after favourite Services had finished a distant third in the team championship behind Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Rajesh Pattu, who went on to collect the individual silver and team bronze in the three-day event, was the man to watch in the team dressage as he garnered a massive 408 points to lead Rajasthan to the first gold of the meet.
Sandeep Dewan, who did his bit in helping Assam gain the bronze in the team championship in dressage, came close to winning the individual show jumping but, in the end, had to make way for Punjab's J. P. Masih. Masih and Dewan had enjoyed clear rounds in the morning session. In the afternoon, Masih repeated the performance while Dewan faltered and attracted four penalty points which forced him to settle for the silver.
In tent-pegging, Madhya Pradesh's Dalbir Singh took the individual gold. For the silver, there was a 'tie' between Karnataka's Mallikarjun Swamy and Services' Sher Singh. The tie was broken on the basis of the time taken by the two riders during their run for the four-centimetre pegs. Swamy had taken 15.28 seconds to Sher Singh's 14.33. That meant, Sher Singh, who incurred a time-penalty of 1.5 in the morning session, had pushed his mount too hard. In the eventual analysis, this proved crucial for Sher Singh as he had to remain content with the bronze.
In fact, this was Sher Singh's second bronze after collecting a similar medal in the team championship on the first day. Haryana had taken the honours, followed by Punjab and Services.
The results:Dressage: Individual: 1. Sunil Shivdas (Services) on Rampage - 492 points; 2. M. S. Rathore (Madhya Pradesh) on Tulsi - 491; 3. Sandeep Dewan (Assam) on Tamara-I - 463; Team championship: 1. Rajasthan (Rajesh Pattu on Ringo, Vishal Bishnoi on Pronto and Shabbir Ali on Pharoh) 1137 points; 2. Madhya Pradesh (Shiv Singh on Pathfinder, M. S. Rathore on Tulsi, Nihal Singh on Antriksh and K. S. Rathore on Tusker) 1117; 3. Services (Sunil Shivdas on Rampage, Mehboob Ali on Shogun, Hanumant Singh on Haifa and Shailendra Singh on Son of Sam) 1115.
Show jumping: Individual: 1. J. P. Masih (Punjab) on Mast Maula - clear rounds; 2. Sandeep Dewan (Assam) on Master - 4 penalty points; 3. Arun Marbashetti (Karnataka) on CJ-15 and N. S. Sandhu (Rajasthan) on Ruffian - 12 each; Team championship: 1. Services (S. S. Ahlawat on Touqade, Ajay Duggal on Chenab, Pushpinder Singh on Tej and Bhoom Singh on Rehbar) 15 points; 2. Delhi (Virender Singh on Mehak, Dharampal on Paramveer, Nitin Gupta on Knight Warrior and Sajan Kumar on Titan) 36; 3. Punjab (R. S. Ahluwalia on Ture Queen, Jagdish Singh on Gulabo, J. P. Masih on Mast Maula and Varun Sharma on Rustam) 40.
Tent-pegging: Individual: Dalbir Singh on Dilawar (MP) 39.5 points; 2. Mallikarjun Swami on Shubham (Karnataka) 38; 3. Sher Singh on Rajnigandhi (Services) 38; Team championship: 1. Haryana (Ram Phool on Ketaki, Soran Lal on Nightingale, Ramesh Kumar on Sohni and Ram Bhagat on David) 81 points; 2. Punjab (Satpal Singh on Hero, Jaswinder Singh on Jasmine and Prabhjot Singh on Shezadi) 77; 3. Services (Mohammad Younas on Big Bomber, Sher Singh on Rajnigandha, Jitender Singh on Seeko and Shish Ram on Pawan) 73.
Three-day event: Individual: 1. Gulab Singh (Services) 49.6 penalty points; 2. Rajesh Pattu (Rajasthan) 52.2; 3. Nitin Gupta (Delhi) 52.8; Team championship: Services (I. J. Lamba, Deep Ahlawat, Gulab Singh and Bhagirath); 2. Uttar Pradesh (P. P. S. Grewal, G. S. Gill, Sunil Kumar and R. B. Mali); 3. Rajasthan (Jagat Singh, Rajesh Pattu, Gulab Singh and Ram Nivas).
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