Gandhinagar: Services are all set to win the Raja Bhalindra Singh Trophy as the champion team in the National Games for the fourth time in succession. Maharashtra and Haryana are engaged in a keen battle for the second spot while Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are in a contest of their own as the Games is heading for a finish on Wednesday.
And yet, the spotlight was well and truly on the Wushu arena in the Mahatma Mandir complex where Abhishek Jamwal, who won Jammu and Kashmir's first gold medal, as well as on Ladakh's Owais Sarwar Ahengar who became the first two medallists for the Union Territory who are competing in the National Games for the first time.
Services added three gold to their collection and remain on top of the charts with 56 gold, 34 silver and 30 bronze medals for a total of 120. Maharashtra hold a four-gold lead over Haryana, thanks to the addition of the Softball men's title and the domination of the Yogasana Artistic Group medals on Tuesday.
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Haryana, who won gold through Ravi Panchal in Wushu here and the women's hockey team in Rajkot, will hope that success in the boxing ring on Wednesday would help them regain the second place behind Services. Karnataka and Haryana lived up to their ranking to claim the men and women's hockey gold medals respectively. Karnataka beat Uttar Pradesh via the sudden death tiebreaker after the teams were locked 2-2 in regulation time and scored four goals apiece in the penalty shootout. Haryana women regained the trophy, edging out their arch-rivals Punjab by a solitary goal, scored by the redoubtable Rani Rampal.
Hosts Gujarat have registered their best show in National Games by bagging 47 medals (13 gold, 15 silver and 19 bronze). There was a dramatic Triathlon Mixed Relay silver for the hosts. Teenager Krishiv Hitesh Patel braved a broken toe to finish the cycling and running legs.
Kerala were hoping to win the men's football gold but West Bengal had other ideas. They left none in doubt about their superiority with a 5-0 hammering of Kerala in the title clash. Maharashtra first defeated Andhra Pradesh 3-0 in the men's Softball final to take on Chhattisgarh in the gold medal match. They then beat Chhattisgarh 1-0 to take gold.
Earlier, Punjab expectedly emerged the women's champions with a 6-2 conquest of Kerala in the final. Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain as well as Commonwealth Games medalists Mohammed Hussamuddin and Jaismine Lamboria registered easy victories to storm into the boxing finals.
Eight Haryana pugilists have made it to finals and will be expected to help the state vault past Maharashtra on the overall medal table.
PTI
