Bhopal, Feb 5 (IANS): Delhi's Sonam and Rajasthan's Sidharth Choudhary excelled as two more national youth records fell on day seven of the Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) 2022 Madhya Pradesh and both of them came in track and field competitions at the T.T. Nagar stadium in Bhopal on Sunday.
Delhi's Sonam, broke the record in the Girls' 2000m steeplechase, finishing with a time of 6.45.71 mins and then later in the Boys' shot put final, Rajasthan's Siddharth Choudhary, heaved the iron ball to a distance of 21.04m to claim a new national youth record.
In the medals table, Maharashtra (25 gold) seems to have regained the advantage at the top of the table, but Haryana (22 gold) and hosts Madhya Pradesh (21 gold) were lying second and third with very little to choose from in terms of gold medals, in between them.
The stars of the day, however, were Sonam and Siddharth and they brought superlative efforts to the fore. Sonam left behind her second-placed rival C. Keerthana of Telangana more than half a minute behind in the distance race, with a fantastic burst of speed in the final leg. Siddharth's effort of 21.04m was also almost a meter and a half ahead of Uttar Pradesh's (UP) Ashutosh Dubey, who flung 19.70m for silver. Ekta Dey of Madhya Pradesh (M.P) and Anurag Singh Kaler won bronze in the Girls' steeplechase and Boys' shot put respectively.
Sanyukta Kale wins three gold medals
At Gwalior's Laxmibai National Institute of Physical Education (LNIPE), where the Gymnastics competition concluded on Sunday, Maharashtra's Sanyukta Kale was the star winning three gold medals in Girls' Rhythmic Gymnastics. Sanyukta won the Clubs, Hoop and Ball events to totally dominate the discipline. Jammu & Kashmir's Muskan Rana came second to her in each of the three events.
The other six Gymnastics gold medals were evenly distributed between hosts Madhya Pradesh (Dipesh Lashkari- Boys' Horizontal Bar), UP (Jatin Kumar Kanojia- Boys Parallel Bar), Telangana (Surabhi Prasanna- Girls Vault), Gujarat (Nishi Bhavsar- Girls' Balancing Beam), West Bengal (Soumili Karar- Girls Floor Exercise) and Maharashtra (Urvi Wagh-Girls Uneven Bars).
Madhya Pradesh qualified for semis in Girls' Football
At the Mulna stadium in Balaghat, host M.P. qualified for the semifinals of the Girls' football competition in front of a crowd of 2000 adoring fans, when they defeated Kerala 3-1 in a must-win game. After a goalless second half a wonderful Monisha Singh free-kick gave the hosts the lead and they pressed further ahead after that. Kerala got a consolation goal in the dying minutes. In the second game, Arunachal Pradesh put 17 goals past Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, without reply.
At Indore's Emerald Heights ground in Boys' football, Punjab also qualified for the final four with a 3-0 win over Arunachal. In the other game, Kerala beat M.P. 5-0 to also make the semis.
Kabaddi begins in Indore
The Kabaddi competitions also began at Indore's Abhay Prashal on day seven with a flurry of group games lined up. Among the Girls, M.P., Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar won their games while Delhi, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and UP were the winners among the Boys.
Group games also continued in hockey at the M.P Women's Hockey Academy turf in Gwalior. Host M.P. continued to impress in both the Boys' and Girls' categories as their boys beat Jharkhand 5-1, while the Girls put five past Odisha without reply. Among the other winners on the day were UP (Girls), Punjab (Girls), UP (Boys), Punjab (Boys) and Haryana (Boys). The Girls' group game between Haryana and Jharkhand ended in a stalemate.
National Rifle coach's son wins gold
In shooting, where two gold medals were decided, the 17-year-old son of former Olympian and chief national Rifle coach Joydeep Karmakar, Adriyan Karmakar, won gold in the Boys 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) event defeating Rajasthan's Manvendra Shekhawat 16-12 in the gold medal clash. In the 10m Air Pistol Mixed team event, the gold went to Keshav Chaudhary and Sanskriti Bana of UP who beat Shubham Bisla and Suruchi of Haryana 16-8 in the decider.