Maharashtra increase tally to 60 golds in Khelo India

Guwahati : Assam's Shivangi Sarma added a fourth freestyle swimming gold medal to her collection at the Khelo India Youth Games 2020, winning the girls under-21 crown with much to spare but Maharashtra's all-round power across disciplines was just as impressive as nature's sound and light show that lit up the Assam capital on Sunday evening.

Just as thunder, lightning and rain left the city drenched, Maharashtra finished the day with a whopping 60 gold in their 193-medal haul. Yet, Shivangi Sarma celebrated her return to her hometown after training in Delhi over the past couple of years with an impressive fourth gold in 59.26 seconds. Kenisha Gupta (Maharashtra) won the under-17 race in a faster time.

Mihir Ambre, Rudranish Mishra and Aaron Fernandes helped Maharashtra make light of the five-second lead that India's best backstroke swimmer Srihari Nataraj opened up for Karnataka to win the 4x100m Medley Relay by 0.24 seconds.

This dramatic win saw them finish the day with nine gold at the Dr. Zakir Hussain Aquatics Complex and inch close to Karnataka's 10.

Maharashtra's spoils got richer as the two under-17 Kho-kho teams, two wrestlers and three weight-lifters added to their gold collection on Sunday. Haryana, on the contrary, managed three gold through their wrestlers and watched their rivals enhance their lead at the top of the medals table.

Delhi's swimmers enjoyed a good day, winning three gold to help their State consolidate their position in the third place with 30 gold ahead of Uttar Pradesh's 23. With just one gold through 400m Freestyle swimmer, Aneesh S Gowda, Karnataka were unable to draw any closer to Uttar Pradesh.

Maharashtra's delight at the Bhogeswari Phukanani Indoor Stadium knew no bounds as Abhishek Nipane, a bronze medal winner in the under-21 73kg class in Pune last year, and Kiran Marathe, silver medallist a year ago, both improved on their performances to increase Maharashtra's collection of weight-lifting gold to eight out of the 18 contested so far.

Tamil Nadu's girls under-17 weight-lifters claimed two gold medals through Y Poorna Sri (64kg class) and M Lekhamaalya (71kg class), the latter having to hold her nerve through the climax to win by a 2kg margin. These medals saw Tamil Nadu rise to the sixth place with 13 gold and 25 silver in a total of 53 medals.