Welcome to Sportstar’s Highlights of the 36th National Games in Gujarat.
Want to know more about the events taking place today? Here is today’s National Games schedule.
CWG silver medallist Tulika Maan of Delhi wins gold at the National Games by beating Kanwarpreet Kaur of Punjab in the +78kg women’s final.
The men’s below 66kg gold goes to NK Romen Singh of Service who beats Ayush Mavari of Delhi in the final.
In the men’s below 60kg event, UP’s Vijay Yadav beat Delhi’s Harsh Singh to win gold medal.
Earlier in the day, H. Sunibala Devi of Manipur beat Mega Tokas of Delhi to win gold medal in the below 63kg category.
Final swimming event of the day is about to begin - mixed 4x100m freestyle relay. Karnataka wins gold with a timing of 3:44.62s. Maharashtra (3:47.81s) takes silver while the final place on the podium will be occupied by Tamil Nadu (3:50.74s).
Men’s 50m backstroke is underway. All eyes on Olympian Srihari Nataraj. And Nataraj does win the gold. The Karnataka swimmer also sets a new National Games record with a timing of 25.65s. Services swimmer Vinayak (26.72s) takes silver while bronze goes to S Siva (27.11s) of Karnataka.
Women’s 50m backstroke is underway. Local favourite Maana Patel clinches gold with a new National Games record of 29.77s. Ridhima Kumar (30.13s) of Karnataka wins silver while bronze goes to Sagnik Roy (31.24s) of West Bengal.
Sajan Prakash clinches the men’s 200m medley gold with a National Games record timing of 2:05.81s. Karnataka’s S Siva (2:07.47s) takes silver while TN’s Rohit Benedicton (2:08.66s) gets bronze.
Yet another gold for Hashika, this time in the women’s 200m medley with a timing of 2:26.23s. Her statemate Manavi Varma (2:27.13s) wins silver while Goa’s Shrungi Bandekar (2:28.64s) takes bronze.
Karnataka’s Hashika Ramachandra clinches gold in the women’s 400m freestyle. Silver goes to Bhavya Sachdeva of Delhi and Vritti Agarwal of Telangana takes bronze.
Kerala’s Sajan Prakash pips MP’s Advait Page to gold in the men’s 400m freestyle. Aneesh Gowda of Karnataka takes bronze.
World championships bronze medallist Shiva Thapa is through to quarterfinals with a 5-0 over Aniket Pandey of Gujarat. Shiva will face Vikas in the last-eight bout.
Services boxer Akash reaches the last-eight stage with a 5-0 win over Aman of Chandigarh.
UP’s Aditya Pratap Yadav reaches quarterfinals with a win over Odisha’s Smarak Sahoo.
Punjab’s Vikas Kumar beats Bihar’s Haider Ali 1-0 to reach quarterfinals.
Tripura’s Parvinder Poonia wins 5-0 against Chhattisgarh’s Lokesh Sahu.
Inderjeet Singh of Daman and Diu wins 5-0 against Jharkhand’s Kirandeep Singh.
Services boxer Muhammed Etash Khan beats Maharashtra’s Harivansh Tiwari 5-0.
Punjab’s Vijay Kumar wins 5-0 against Karnataka’s Kiran Bk.
Maharashtra’s Vaibhav Shrirame takes the gold in the men’s traditional event. Shubham Debnath of West Bengal wins silver while Mohammed Firoz Shiek of Karnataka takes bronze.
In the women’s event, it was Madhya Pradesh’s Neeru who came out on top. UP’s Sabeera Haris took silver while bronze went to Seema Tomar of Services.
Rajasthan’s Vivaan Kapoor clinched the men’s trap gold with a score of 31. Punjab’s Zoravar Sandhu (26) took silver while bronze went to Balabhadra Tarashia (20) of Services.
Gujarat beats Punjab 3-2 in the final match of the league stage.
Final whistle is blown and Punjab is through to the semifinals with a 24-0 win over host Gujarat.
Six minutes remaining in the match and Punjab is cruising towards a semifinal spot with a lead of 22-0.
Punjab continues to dominate and leads 18-0 at the end of third quarter.
At half-time, Gujarat trails by 15 goals against Punjab.
10 goals for Punjab and its not even half-time!
Gujarat seems to not be in a hurry to equalise with Punjab.
Full domination by Punjab as they lead by seven goals and its just the first quarter!
Punjab leads 3-0 over Gujarat in the first quarter. Make it five!
Punjab’s Diksha Rajpoot wins via RSC against Telangana’s Narmada Munigi.
Himachal Pradesh’s Shretima Thakur beats Chandigarh’s Pranshu Rathore 5-0.
Haryana’s Saweety and Delhi’s Shalakha Singh Sansanwal are through to the next round with 5-0 wins over Rajasthan’s Chirangi Chouhan and Tamil Nadu’s D. Priya, respectively.
In the final featherweight bout of the day, Jharkhand’s Jadov Deogam comes out on top with a 5-0 win over West Bengal’s Rohit Roy.
Haryana’s Sachin and Gujarat’s Aasifali Saiyd too are through to the next round with respective wins over Arunachal Pradesh’s Amir Tajo and Bihar’s Manish Kumar.
Chhattisgarh’s S. Sahil wins his Round 1 bout 5-0 against Manipur’s Yengkokpam Jobison Singh.
Punjab’s Simranjit Kaur and Himachal Pradesh’s Dimple Upadhyay beat UP’s Rinky Sharma and Gujarat’s Falgunee Vora, respectively by identical scoreline of 5-0.
In the final flyweight bout of the day, TN’s Ramakrishnan Bala wins 5-0 against Bihar’s Aman Kumar.
Himachal Pradesh’s Avinash Chandel edged Ruchir Srivas of Madhya Pradesh 3-2.
Bhim Pratap Singh wins 4-1
It’s home crowd favourite Shubhashbhai Rathore vs Rajasthan’s Bhim Pratap Singh
Karan wins the bout and advances to the next round 4-1 !
Suraj Soy of Jharkhand and Tripura Karan Rupini in action.
Ojibala Thounaojam of Manipur trounced over Maharashtra’s Aarya Kulkarni 5-0.
Anjali Sharma of Madhya Pradesh won against Guduru Ramya of Andhra Pradesh 5-0.
Manju Basumatary of Assam defeated Hetal Sundarji Dama 3-2.
Want to know more about soft tennis. Click here to read more!
Delhi to face Tamil Nadu in semifinals of women’s soft tennis event, while the other semifinals will see Gujarat taking on Chhattisgarh.
Women’s team-
Delhi defeated Rajasthan- 5-0, 4-2
Tamil Nadu thrashed Haryana- 5-4, 4-0
Kerala lost to Gujarat- 2-5, 2-4
Chhattisgarh beat Madhya Pradesh- 5-4, 0-4, 5-2
Gujarat’s Pooja Patel scripts history as she becomes the first-ever athlete to bag the gold in yogasana at the National Games
Tulika Mann is through to the final of the +78kg category by beating Haryana’s Nutan Sharma.
In round 2 Mann beat Manipur’s Uma Chauhan 1-0 to enter the semifinals of the women’s above 78kg category.
Commonwealth Games silver medallist Tulika Maan of Delhi defeated Gujarat’s Jha Purnima Ganeshbhai 1-0 in round one.
And Jharkhand through to the semifinals after thrashing UP 6-1.
Three consecutive penalty corner for UP. Make it four. But UP fails to make anything out of it.
Finally a goal for UP as a deflection takes place off a penalty corner. Jharkhand still leads 6-1.
Throttling through the field, Jharkhand scores yet another goal, its third goal in the third quarter itself.
Nikki Pradhan-led Jharkhand team’s defence proves to be too hard to combat for Vandana Katariya’s Uttar Pradesh’s team.
Jharkhand dominates the field as it leads 5-0 with yet another goal scored in the third quarter.
With just a minute since the third quarter started, Jharkhand gets yet another goal as Sangita scores a brace.
At the end of half-time Jharkhand leads 3-0.
Jharkhand leads 3-0 against Uttar Pradesh as Sangita Kumari scores.
Maharashtra wins gold in women’s diving 1m spring board event.
Karnataka lost to West Bengal 1-3 as both teams enter semis.
Bengal scored its second goal against Karnataka in the 92nd minute.
West Bengal equalises with Karnataka as both teams score a goal each.
Karnataka takes on West Bengal in the group match.
Haryana defeats Karnataka 6-0 to advance to the women’s hockey semifinals.
13th penalty corner for Haryana and a penalty stroke is awarded as the Karnataka defender stops the attempt to score a goal. However, the penalty stroke is stopped by the goalkeeper of K’taka.
Haryana gets the better of Karnataka in the fourth quarter as well bring the lead to 6-0.
Rampal scores brace as Haryana leads 5-0.
Haryana’s players have an upper hand in the match, several players including the goalkeeper Savita Punia have international experience.
Third quarter sees Haryana score a goal of the fourth penalty corner and succeed.
After the first quarter ends with Haryana leading 2-0 with the second goal being scored by Rani Rampal.
Haryana and Karnataka in action.
Madhya Pradesh triumphs over Odisha 4-2 to enter the semifinals of women’s hockey event.
Here’s what happened yesterday (October 6)- Y B Sarangi, MR Praveen Chandran
BADMINTON
Top seed B Sai Praneeth of Telangana and second seed Aakarshi Kashyap of Chhattisgarh emerged champions in the badminton men's and women's singles finals in the 36th National Games at PDDU Indoor stadium here on Thursday.
Praneeth had to toil hard for his gold medal. After the Telangana shuttler won the first game, Karnataka's Mithun Manjunath made a comeback, pushing the match into the third game. Praneeth, however, held his nerves and won the match 21-11, 12-21, 21-16.
Also Read | National Games: Praneeth, Sumeeth and Sikki power Telangana to mixed team gold
It was, meanwhile, Telangana's third gold medal in badminton at the National Games.
In women's singles, Aakarshi sent top-seed Malvika Bansod of Maharashtra packing with a thumping 21-8, 22-20 victory to claim her maiden Games gold.
In women's doubles, The Telangana duo of N. Sikki Reddy and Gayatri Gopichand clinched the gold medal, beating national champions Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam of Karnataka 21-14, 21-11.
Also Read | Prannoy climbs to world no. 15 in latest BWF rankings for first time in four years
Kerala's P. S. Ravikrishna and Sankarprasad Udaykumar took the men's doubles gold, with a straight games win over Hariharan Amsakarunan and R Ruban Kumar.
Ashwini Ponnappa and K Sai Prateek of Karnataka started their journey as a mixed doubles pair with a comfortable 21-16, 21-13 win over Rohan Kapoor and Kanika Kanwal of Delhi to win the gold medal.
HOCKEY
Defending champion Haryana and Maharashtra warmed up for their quarterfinal matches with wins in the men’s hockey event of the 36th National Games at the Dhyanchand Hockey stadium here on Thursday.
Haryana scored an unconvincing 7-0 win over lowly Gujarat. The host put up a decent fight against Haryana and could take pride in restricting the victory margin to just seven goals.
After conceding three goals in the first quarter, Gujarat came up with an improved show while defending the penalty corners and managed to frustrate the champion side. Gurmukh Singh and Iknoordeep scored a brace for Haryana while Mahakdeep Singh, Manpreet and Abhishek scored the other goals.
A brace from captain Devinder Walmiki enabled Maharashtra to beat West Bengal 2-0 in another Group B match. The women’s quarterfinals will begin on Friday.
SWIMMING
The big names in Indian swimming dazzled by setting new games records on the fifth day of the 36 th National Games swimming events at the Sardar Patel Aquatic Complex here on Thursday.
Olympian Srihari Nataraj broke the existing record in 100m backstroke event while Madhya Pradesh’s Advait Page and crowd favourite Maana Patel kept their date with the record. Nina Venkatesh barged into the record breakers group by setting a new mark in 50m butterfly. Kerala’s Sajan Prakash swam to his third gold medal of the meet while winning the 50m butterfly.
Advait Page came up with a terrific kick in the final 50 metres to upstage leaders Aryan Nehra and Sajan Prakash to win the gold in 800m freestyle. Local lad Aryan Nehra set the pace and led for the most part of the race with Sajan Prakash stalking the leader. Advait, who was far behind the leaders, caught up with them in the final 100 metres. At the homestretch, Advait went all out and finished ahead of Aryan and Sajan with a new record of 8:12.24s.
In the 100m backstroke, Srihari Nataraj led from the start but slowed down at the finish in order to conserve energy for his last event, the 50m butterfly. However, Srihari still managed to set a new record by clocking 55.80s and broke P.S. Madhu’s old mark (57.62s) set in 2015.
But Srihari looked out of sorts in the 50m butterfly which saw Sajan Prakash blitz the field to take the gold in 25.10s.
Maana Patel proved that she is the undisputed queen of backstroke as she effortlessly won the 100m event without any competition. Maana broke her own old mark (1:05.32) by clocking 1:04.35s. In the final.
In 50m butterfly, Karnataka’s Nina Venkatesh bested Divya Satija, who had set a new record (28.76s) in the heats, for the gold. Nina clocked 28.39s for the new mark while Divya (28.63s) and Tanishi Gupta (28.68s) also came inside the existing mark.
ARCHERY
Sangeeta gave a controlled performance to claim recurve women’s individual and team gold medals in the National Games at the Sanskardham archery ground on Thursday.
The 22-year-old Sangeeta’s performance helped Haryana secure four of five gold medals on offer in the recurve division. The side also bagged the men’s team and mixed team crowns.
On a cloudy and comparatively pleasant day, Sangeet, hailing from Hisar, defeated young Jharkhand archer Anshika Singh 6-2 (28-25, 26-23, 24-25, 28-26) in the individual final to emerge as the champion. Simranjeet Kaur bagged the bronze medal.
“I just focused on winning the gold medal. There was some wind, but I controlled my shooting and got good scores,” said Sangeeta.
Later, Sangeeta joined hands with Bhajan Kaur and Preeti to beat the star-studded Jharkhand trio of Komalika Bari, Ankita Bhakat and Dipti Kumari 5-4 (shoot-off: 28-27) in a closely-fought women’s team summit clash. The bronze went to host Gujarat.
Akash and Bhajan pipped Maharashtra’s Gaurav Lambe and Charuta Kamalpur 5-4 (shoot-off 19-16) for the top honour in the mixed team event. Jharkhand finished third.
Haryana got the men’s team title as well. Services could not compete in the final as one of its team members, Olympian Pravin Jadhav, was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday because of dengue.
Atanu Das shone amid Haryana archers’ dominance as the Olympian beat a seasoned rival and last edition’s silver medallist Gurucharan Besra 6-4 (27-27, 28-27, 27-28, 28-28, 29-27) in a keenly-contested final to win his maiden recurve men’s individual crown.
Defending champion Tarundeep Rai picked up the bronze.
GOLF
Maharashtra's Rohan Patil enjoyed a sole lead with a score of five-under 67 among men and Karnataka’s Avani Prashanth carded a one-under 71 to lead the pack among women after the first round competitions of the National Games at the Kensville Golf and Country Club here on Thursday.
Haryana (143) in men’s section and Karnataka (144) in women’s section led in team competitions.
