Desinghu won a gold in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay to add to her earlier four yellow metals in the Games as Karnataka continued their domination in swimming with three top podium finishes at the pool in Haldwani on Saturday
There is no stopping 14-year-old Karnataka swim sensation Dhinidhi Desinghu, who continued her impressive run to claim her fifth gold medal, as the formidable Services climbed to the top of the medal tally for the first time at the 38th National Games on Saturday. (More Sports News)
Desinghu won a gold in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay to add to her earlier four yello♉w metals in the Games as Karnataka continued their domination in swimming with three top podium finishes at the pool in Haldwani on Saturday.
The day also marked Services' rise♚ to the top by jumping one place, toppling Manipur after winning eight medals, including a whopping five gold. Their medal tally stands at 26 (14 gold, 7 silver, 5 br𝔉onze). They were at second place on Friday with 19 medals.
Karnataka ꧋followed at second place with 23 medals (13 go🦹ld, 5 silver, 5 bronze).
Defending champions Maharashtra, with 41 medals (11 gold, 18 silver, 12 bronze), were at third, while Manipur dropped three places to fourth with 24 medals (11 gꦿold, 9 silver, 4 bronze).
Services had🀅 emerged champions four times in💎 the last five editions.
It was Desinghu who anchor💦ed Karnataka to gold in the women's 4x♛200m freestyle relay, clocking 8 minute 54.87 seconds. The other three members of the Karnataka team are Shirin, Shalini R Dixit and Meenakshi Menon.
Gujarat (7:49.71) and Maharashtra (7:55.62) won the silver and bronze medals res🍷pectively.
Earlier this week, Dhinidhi had won gold in the wome🌺n's 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 4x100m freestyle relay and 50m freestyle events.
Paris Olympian Srihari Nataraj then anchored Karnataka to the ꦛmen's 4x200m freestyle relay gold, with the team clocking 7:45.82.ꦓ Dhakshan S, Shoan Ganguly and Aneesh S Gowda were the other members of the quartet.
Karnataka's other gold medal was won by Vidith S Shankar in men's 50m breaststroke wit𝔍h a time of 29.12 seconds. The women's 50m breaststroke gold was won by Harshitha Jayaram of Kerala who clocked 34.14 seco🌃nds.
Kerala's Sajan Prakash clinched the men's 200m butterfly gold with an impressive time of 2:01.40, while the women's correspondin🦋g event was won by Maharasht⭕ra's Dhirti Ahirwal (2:23.80).
At the shooting rang𒈔e in Dehradun, the Punjab duo of Arjun Babuta and Ojasvi Thakur showcased precision and composure to clinch the 10m air rifle mixed team gold💫 medal.
Arjun and Ojasvi beat Maharashtra's Arya Borse and Rudrankksh🃏 Patil 16-12 in an intense g꧃old medal match on Day 4 of shooting competitions.
There was nothing much to separate between the two pairs for most part of the contest before the Punjab duo sealed the win wi💙th a final shot score of 21.4 against Maharashtra's 21.0.
In the bronze medꩲal match, West Bengal's Abhinav Shaw and Ismita Bhowal put up an impressive performance to defeat Gujarat by 17-11. Their final shot score of 21.1 proved superio𒉰r to Gujarat's 20.4, earning them a place on the podium.
"It feels absolutely amazing to win gold for our state, and of course, it was a true team effort," said the 16-year-old O𓄧jasvi, expressing joy after the gold medal win.
"While on the shooting range and aiming for gold, we both focused on our individual performances, striving to achieve the maximum points," said the 26-year-old Babuta, who won 10m air rifle individual event as well as team gold in the 2022 Changwon World Cup and also a yellow metal in the team event in the 2023 Asian Championshipsౠ.
Ear𒉰lier, the qualification round saw participation of 25 teams from across India, with the top four advancing to the final. Punjab led the qualification standings with a score of 631.7, followed by Maharashtra (630.7), West Bengal (630.6) and Gujarat (629.4).
Meanwhile, Maharashtra capped 💝their dominating performance in the kho kho event at the National Games b💯y claiming both the men's and women's gold medals.
Odisha also secured the silv♕er medal in both the men's and women'𒅌s tournaments.
In the me🧔n's final, Maharashtr🎀a defeated Odisha 32-26, while their women counterparts triumphed over Odisha 31-28.
The bronze medal match in the men's 🔯category witnessed a fierce battle between West Bengal and Kerala. As both teams finished the game s😼imultaneously, the match went into sudden death, resulting to both teams being jointly awarded the bronze medal.
The women's third-place match between Delhi and K🅷arnataka also extended to sudden death, and ultimately, both teamꦕs were jointly awarded the bronze medal.
In the weightlifting arena, P📖unjab won two gold medals 🎃along with two silver and one bronze. Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Services clinched a gold each.