Maharashtra dominates swimming, shooting, while Manipur shines in weightlifting

Karnataka's 14-year-old swimming sensation Dhinidhi Desinghu clinched her fourth gold, while weightlifters continued to impress with Manipur's Bindyarani Devi smashing a national record on a day when the tiny northeastern state jumped to the top of medal tally at the National Games on Friday.

A sporting powerhouse despite its small size, Manipur moved up two rungs after winning eight medals, including a gold each from weightlifting and wushu, for a total of 19 (9 gold, 7 silver, 3 bronze).

Services, though, were close on the heels of Manipur with just one less total medal and same number of gold, jumping two places to second from Thursday's fourth. They added nine medals on Friday, including five gold, for a total of 18 (9 gold, 6 silver, 3 bronze).

Karnataka, at the top till Thursday, lost two places to fall to third with a total of 17 medals (9 gold, 4 silver, 4 bronze). The competition is extremely tough as the top-three each have nine gold and just one medal in total count separating one another.

Maharashtra also added nine medals on Friday and their total count is 32 (7 gold, 16 silver, 9 bronze), the most among all the teams. But their lesser number of yellow metal kept them at the third spot. Desinghu continued her dominant performance at the National Games, securing a fourth gold with a win in the women's 50m freestyle event in Haldwani.

The Karnataka girl, India's youngest participant at the Paris Olympics last year, finished first with a time of 26.96 seconds, while her teammate Nina Venkatesh took the bronze (27.34s), and Maharashtra's Avantika Chawan claimed the silver (27.28s).

Earlier this week, Dhinidhi had triumphed in the women's 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly, and the 4x100m freestyle relay, further solidifying her exceptional performance.

In the men's 400m medley, Karnataka's Shoan Ganguly claimed the gold with a timing of 4:29.10, with Gujarat's Aryan Nehra (4:31.81) and Madhya Pradesh's Advait Page (4:35.83) securing the silver and bronze respectively.

Maharashtra also had a successful day, with Mihir Ambre winning the gold in the men's 50m freestyle (23.29s), while Karnataka's two-time Olympian Srihari Nataraj (23.37s) came in second and Tamil Nadu's Joshua Thomas (23.40s) finished third.

Rishabh Das added to Maharashtra's gold count in the men's 200m backstroke, clocking 2:03.34, while Tamil Nadu's Nithik Nathella (2:04.75) and Gujarat's Devansh Parmar (2:06.56) claimed the silver and bronze.

At the weightlifting arena in Dehradun, Manipur's star weightlifter Bindyarani Devi set a national record in snatch en route to her gold medal-winning effort in the women's 55kg category.

Tamil Nadu's N Ajith also had his share of spotlight as he sealed his place in National Games history with a third consecutive gold medal in the men's 73kg category.

After dominating the National Games in Gujarat and Goa, Ajith added Uttarakhand to his list of victories.

Bindyarani, a Commonwealth Games silver medallist, overcame an initial setback in her first attempt at 83kg in the snatch category.

She displayed remarkable resilience, lifting 88kg in her final attempt to break the national record.

She broke the record of 86kg held by Mirabai Chanu.

But Mirabai's pet event is 49kg. She competed in 55kg only for a brief period.

Bindyarani's dominance continued in clean and jerk as well, where she successfully lifted 107kg in her first attempt.

Though she faltered at 112kg in her second attempt, she bounced back with a 113kg lift in her last attempt. Her total lift of 201kg was just one kilogram short of her national record of 202kg.

With this victory, Bindyarani now holds all three national records -- snatch, clean and jerk, and total lift -- in women's 55kg category.

"I was well prepared, and I am happy with my performance. It is always nice to get a record in your name. It's good that now both snatch and clean & jerk records are in my name," Bindyarani said.

Adding to Manipur's joy, L Nilam Devi secured the bronze medal, ensuring two podium finishes for the state.

In shooting, world junior champion Parth Mane held his nerves to beat teammate Rudranksh Patil en route the men's 10m air rifle gold as Maharashtra registered a 1-2 finish.

Services' Kiran Jadhav won the bronze.

The 17-year-old Mane produced a commanding performance to hold the lead after every series barring one.

Remaining unruffled throughout the final despite the presence of more experienced shooters around him, Mane fired consistently and was able to overcome the blip of logging 9.9 and 10.0 with his 12th and 14th shots.

Six of his next 10 shots earned him 10.7 points or more.

Rudranksh breathed down his neck after 20 shots, only 0.6 points behind, but Mane overcame the sustained pressure from his senior.

Meanwhile in rugby sevens, Haryana defeated Maharashtra 22-7 in men's summit clash, while Odisha thrashed Bihar 29-5 in the women's final to cover themselves in glory.

Maharashtra men tried gamely to challenge Haryana, the most dominant team on the national circuit, levelling the scores at 7-7. But Haryana stepped up the pressure to beat Maharashtra for the third successive time in the National Games final.

(Except for the headline, nothing has been changed by AINN News in the PTI.)