A vibrant set of Haryana girls decimated Odhisha in the hockey final while two of their boys ! judoka Anil (55 kg) and swimmer Harsh Saroha (100m butterfly) ! clinched gold to keep the hosts ahead in the Khelo India Youth Games 2021.
Haryana’s 4-1 gold efforts were etched out by captain Sonam (two goals) and Kanika Siwach and Gurmail Kaur, one each, much to the delight of a packed stadium. Earlier, Jharkhand made up for their heart-breaking loss, beating UP 4-1 to take home the bronze medal.
Later in the evening, Saroha added another gold to his earlier 50m butterfly triumph, taking the 100m butterfly final to take the hosts’ overall tally to 36 gold, 28 silver and 36 bronze.
Maharashtra, though, continued to breathe down their necks, adding gold in mallakhamb and judo to take their tally to 34. While the mallakhamb boys pipped Madhya Pradesh in the final, judoka Mithila Bhosale defeated Gujarat’s Archana Naghera in the Girls 40kg category.
In swimming events, Karnataka’s Ridhma Kumar set a new mark even as her teammates ruled the pool with five gold on the third day of the swimming competition, helping the state leapfrog Manipur to the third spot in the overall standings.
The Class X student clocked 29.88s to erase the old mark of 29.94.