National Games 2022 Highlights: Rosy Meena of Tamil Nadu sets new National Record in Women’s Pole Vault; Jeswin Aldrin wins long jump gold, qualifies for World Championship
National Games 2022 : Follow updates, results and highlights from the 36th edition of the National Games, which will be held in Gujarat from Sep 29 to Oct 12.
Updated : Oct 01, 2022 23:14 IST
Aishwarya Mishra of Maharashtra won the women’s 400m gold. | Photo Credit: KRISHNAN VV
Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s HIGHLIGHTS from the 36th National Games in Gujarat.
Want to know more about the events taking place today? Here is today’s National Games 2022 schedule
- Pole-vaulter Rosy Meena Paulraj (Tamil Nadu) scaled new heights to share the spotlight with Weightlifter and state-mate N Ajith, both rewriting National records in the 36th National Games in Gandhinagar.
- Rosy Meena Paulraj, 24, who got into a good rhythm, was able to improve her personal best from 4.00m to 4.20m to break VS Surekha’s National as well as National Games records set in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
- Ajith broke the National Record in the Clean and Jerk with a lift of 174kg to push National Games record efforts by track and field athletes into the shade.
- Long-jumper Jeswin Aldrin (Tamil Nadu) was the biggest winner on the second day of track and field competition at IIT Gandhinagar. He first claimed the National Games record when he leapt to 8.21m effort on his third try. Even as Commonwealth Games medal winner M Sreeshankar passed his last four attempts, Jeswin Aldrin improved to 8.26m on his last attempt.
- Shot-putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Punjab) and 400m runner Muhammed Ajmal (Kerala) also rewrote National marks but the day belonged to weightlifter Ajith.
Rosy Meena Paulraj of Tamil Nadu sets a new National Record of 4.20m in the Women’s Pole Vault. The 25-year-old erases the previous mark of 4.15m set by V. Surekha in 2014.
Jeswin Aldrin makes a jump of 8.26m in his final attempt of the National Games. He wins gold and also automatically qualifies for the World Championships (QF standard 8.25m).
Our correspondent Jonathan Selvaraj pings: Jeswin Aldrin with an 8.21m jump in his third attempt. Probably a new Games Record (not sure about wind).
Manipur’s Bindyarani Devi lifts a total of 194 kg to win gold in the women’s 59kg final. She was in close competition to Popy Hazarika of Assam and Davinder Kaur of Punjab, who won silver and bronze, respectively.
4 x 100 men’s relay- Tamil Nadu wins gold with a time of 40.01, followed by Kerala and Services.
Our correspondent Jonathan Selvaraj pings
Not a lot of space between the end of the long jump pit and the wall at IIT Gandhinagar. Organisers have put up a couple of mattresses so jumpers don’t run into the wall. Already come in hand in couple of practice jumps when athletes tend to run through the pit.
Space between the end of the long jump pit and the wall at IIT Gandhinagar. | Photo Credit: Jonathan Selvaraj
MEDAL MATCHES TO WATCH OUT FOR TODAY-
- Women’s pole vault finals- 3:15 PM onwards
- Men’s shotput finals- 4:10 PM
- Men’s 4 x 100m relay finals- 4:15 PM
- Men’s long jump finals- 4:20 PM
- Women’s 4 x 100m relay- 4:30 PM
- Women’s discus throw finals-4:45 PM
- Lawn Bowls - Men’s triple, Men’s Pair, Women’s Single, Women’s Fours finals
- Speed Skating- men and women 10000m finals at 6:30 PM and 7 PM, respectively.
- Skateboarding- Finals of street skating men and women at 3 PM and 4:30 PM
- Women’s foil individual, men’s epee individual, sabre individual finals at 4:40 PM, 5 PM and 5:15 PM, respectively.
- Women’s artistic individual all round- 4:30 PM
- Weightlifting- Men’s 73 kg
- Wrestling- Men’s freestyle 65kg, 125 kg, Greco Roman 77 kg, 97kgand women’s freestyle 50kg, 68 kg repechage and medal matches will be held from 4 PM onwards.
- Kabaddi Men and Women finals- 7 PM
400m-
- Aishwarya Mishra of Maharashtra wins gold with a time of 52.62, while Andhra Pradesh’s Jyothikasri goes past Rupal Chaudhary of Uttar Pradesh.
- WOMEN’S FINALS IN ACTION!
- Muhammad Ajmal of Services’ pips Delhi’s Amoj Jacob clocking 46.29 to win gold in the men’s 400m final.
- MEN’S FINALS IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!
Gujarat won women's team gold medal in tennis defeating Maharashtra 2-1.
Women’s 100m-
- Jyothi Yarraji of Andhra Pradesh cruises past Tamil Nadu’s Archana Suseendran (11.55) and Diandra of Maharashtra (11.62) with a time of 11.51 and wins gold in the women’s 100m event.
- Assam’s Hima Das and Dutee Chand of Odisha will be competing for the women’s 100m sprint.
Men’s 100m-
- Amlan wins gold with a timing of 10.38s, however, was slower than his semifinal of 10.28. Elakiyadasan of Tamil Nadu finishes second with 10.44.
- Amlan Borgohain of Assam will be seen in action. He is the current national record holder in the men’s 100m event with a time of 10.25s.
Here’s our correspondent Santadeep bringing you some live updates
Telangana’s Esha Singh defeats Rhythm Sangwan of Haryana by a narrow 26-25 to win gold in the women’s 25m pistol event.
Maharashtra’s Abhidnya Patil wins bronze in the women’s 25m pistol event!
Maharashtra defeated Services 2-0 to win gold in the men’s team event.
Here’s our correspondent Santadeep bringing you some live updates
Manu Bhaker and Abhidnya Ashok Patil are the top two in the next relay.
Rhythm Sangwan and Esha Singh make the medal contest after first relay in ranking match of the women’s 25m pistol event. Manu Bhaker up in the next relay.
Services’ Subhash Lahre lifted a total of 275 kg to win weightlifting gold in the men’s 67 kg category. Neelam Raju from Andhra Pradesh and Odisha’s Susant Sahu won the silver and bronze medals.
Haryana’s Arshdeep Singh and Ramita defeated Aishwary Pratap and Shreya Agarwal of Madhya Pradesh 17-9 to win gold in the 10m air rifle mixed team event. While, Tamil Nadu’s Narmada Nithin and Sri Kartik Sabari and Divyansh Singh and Nisha Kanwar of Rajasthan won bronze.
Goa edges past Mizoram 2-1 in the first match of the women’s football.
Jharkhand beat West Bengal 17-7 in the women’s lawn bowls fours event to enter the finals. It will face Assam in the finals after Assam defeated Delhi 22-8. In the men’s lawn bowls triples Assam pipped Delhi 26-8 to enter the finals. It will face West Bengal, who beat Jharkhand 23-10. In the bronze medal match of the men’s lawn bowls pair West Bengal edged Jharkhand by a narrow margin 14-13.
The wrestling bouts have started! Men’s freestyle 65kg, 125 kg, Greco Roman 77 kg, 97kg and women’s freestyle 50kg, 68 kg qualification rounds will be held from 11 AM- 2 PM. Repechage and medal matches of the mentioned events will be held from 4 PM onwards.
Here’s our correspondent Santadeep bringing you some live updates
Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh and Niveditha V form the top three after the Precision stage of women’s 25m pistol.
Here are the full Precision scores. | Photo Credit: Santadeep Dey
Shreya shoots 315.4 to help MP top 10m AR mixed qualification. APS Tomar provides wonderful support with 314.2
Other finalists: Haryana 2nd, Rajasthan 3rd, Punjab 4th, TN 5th and UP 6th
Vaishnavi of Maharashtra lead 6-4 in the first set against Gujarat’s Zeel.
It’s Gujarat vs Maharashtra in the women’s team finals, while Services and Maharashtra fight it out for men’s team finals.
Men’s and Women’s team finals are taking place at the Sabarmati Riverfront Tennis Courts.
Here’s our correspondent Santadeep Dey bringing you some live update!
Abhishek Pal of Uttar Pradesh won gold in the men’s 5000m with a time of 14:07.25 min, while Services’ Kartik Kumar and Sawan Barwal won the silver and bronze medals.
In the women’s event, UP’s Parul Chaudhary bagged gold with a nail biting finish. Seema of Himachal Pradesh won silver, Sanjivani Jadhav of Maharashtra clinched bronze.
Here’s what happened yesterday (September 30) - From Y B Sarangi and Santadeep Dey
ATHLETICS
Parvej Khan improved upon Bahadur Prasad’s 28-year-old record to win the men’s 1500m event in the athletics arena of the National Games at the IIT campus here on Friday.
Parvej clocked 3:40.89 to leave Bahadur’s 1994 mark of 3:43.57 behind.
In the absence of Abdulla Aboobacker, Praveen Chithravel stole the limelight by setting a new Games record and winning the men’s triple jump title. The Tamil Nadu jumper leaped to 16.68m to erase Ranjith Maheshwary’s 2015 mark of 16.66m.
“After the Commonwealth Games I was not training with full intensity. But I wanted to finish well here. The presence of Eldhose Paul and Aboobacker would have pushed me,” said Praveen.
Altogether six Games records were made on the opening day of the athletics events.
The results (winners only):
SHOOTING
Multiple stoppages due to technical difficulties, a weapon malfunction and player protests marred proceedings during the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol final at the Ahmedabad Military and Rifle Training Association range in Khanpur on Friday. However, the interruptions hardly mattered to an in-form Anish Bhanwala , who blazed his way to a maiden National Games gold medal.
The first ranking match saw Ankur Goel (18) and Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu (13) qualify for the medal match. Olympic medallist Vijay Kumar was level on scores with Sandhu at the end of the competition series, which saw the jury trigger a shoot-off (SO) between the two. After the first series of SO ended 4-4, a second tiebreaker saw Vijay complaining about a weapon malfunction. Although Vijay equalled Sandhu’s showing with two hits again, the qualification was awarded to Sandhu as three of Vijay’s points had to be subtracted owing to the earlier pistol glitch.
CHECK OUT | National Games 2022, September 30 highlights in pictures
Meanwhile, Anish drew loud cheers from the crowd as he registered the perfect score – 20 – in the other ranking game. He qualified alongside Gurmeet (15).
The SIUS electronic scoring systems often showed random scores even before a shot had been taken. On one occasion Anish’s name appeared third, setting up a shoot-off with Gurmeet. The error was quickly rectified by the on-field National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) technical officials upon Anish’s request. A while later, the whole scoring screen turned black causing a frenzy among the shooters, spectators and scorers.
Technical gaffes
In the women’s 10m air rifle, the Karnataka duo of Yukthi Rajendra and Tilottama Sen took an early lead. But home favourite Elavenil Valarivan jumped to the top spot, moments after the second competition series.
READ: Bhowneesh Mendiratta: Will do anything for the Olympic gold medal
This event, too, had its share of technical gaffes after it was announced that Nancy had been eliminated with Shriyanka Sadangi. As she went and sat in the players’ area, a clarification was issued and Arya Rajesh Borse had to depart as an earlier shoot-off score had somehow crept into her total tally.
After Mehuli Ghosh of West Bengal finished third with a score of 261.6, it took 13 shots to decide the gold medal winner. The scores eventually settled 16-10 in favour of Elavenil over Tilottama.
‘Excited’
“I was so excited to shoot because it has been so long since I got to shoot in an event of this magnitude. The fact that this was my home ground and I had so many known faces around made it all the better. Tilottama is a very good shooter. I have seen her for the past few months, and she has been shooting at the top level,” Elavenil said after the match.
The men’s round, meanwhile, saw Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil shoot high-10s consistently to maintain a healthy lead from the very first series. Immediately after the first two eliminations, Patil shot a 9.9 but that didn’t hamper his chances. Patil eventually prevailed in a 12-shot gold medal match, beating World No. 13 Arjun Babuta 17-7.
READ: Shooters turn up in Ahmedabad for National Games, mind on Olympics quota at Cairo Worlds
Babuta won immense appreciation for holding his nerve throughout the two-day event. He squeezed into the final after finishing eighth in the qualification and overcame a sloppy start on the final day as well.
Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, although 10m air rifle isn’t his ‘pet’ event, won bronze. His final score read 261.8.
“Whenever in a tight spot, I start thinking about what to eat today. Anything to take my mind off. I think today I will be relishing the food being served in the players’ dining hall,” Patil joked after the game.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Olympic silver medallist Mirabai Chanu defied a wrist issue and the distraction of attending the opening ceremony on the eve of her competition to land her maiden gold medal in the women’s 49kg category at the weightlifting arena on Mahatma Mandir campus in the National Games on Friday.
Mirabai and her Manipur rival Sanjita Chanu pushed each other tactically before the former prevailed with a snatch effort of 84kg and a clean and jerk mark of 107kg on her second attempts to record a total of 191kg. She beat Sanjita, who put up a spirited performance to aggregate 187kg, by four kg.
National Games 2022: Mirabai Chanu, Achinta Sheuli to headline Weightlifting event
It was a reversal of places on the podium for the two as Sanjita had won the gold in 48kg category while Mirabai had taken the silver seven years ago.
Despite the odds, Mirabai enjoyed her new accomplishments. “It was a proud moment to be the flag-bearer of Manipur. It is a nice feeling to win my first gold here. I recently injured my left wrist during training after which I made sure not to risk it before the World Championships in December,” said Mirabai.
“It normally gets hectic to attend opening ceremonies as my event starts early on the next day, but I felt I must challenge myself this time.”
Even though she is aiming for her first podium finish at the Asian Games next year, Mirabai is focused on the World championships (which would be an Olympic qualifying event).
“An Asian Games medal is missing from my cabinet. It will be my first Asian Games after missing out on the 2018 edition with a back injury. For me, the main focus now is the World championships, where I will get to compete against the same weightlifters whom I will meet in the Asiad,” said the 28-year-old.
The results:
Men:
61kg: 1. Charu Pesi (Aru) snatch 114kg, clean and jerk 145kg, total 259kg; 2. Muna Nayak (SSCB) 108kg, 147kg, 255kg; 3. Zakhuma (Miz) 113kg, 141kg, 254kg.
Women:
49kg: 1. Mirabai Chanu (Man) 84kg, 107kg, 191kg; 2. Sanjita Chanu (Man) 82kg, 105kg, 187kg; 3. Sneha Soren (Odi) 73kg, 96kg, 169kg; 55kg: 1. Ranibala Devi (Man) 84kg, 104kg, 188kg; 2. Veerjeet Kaur (Chd) 82kg, 98kg, 180kg; 3. Pramila Krisani (Odi) 70kg, 97kg, 167kg.