Hosts Maharashtra won all four gold medals in the kho-kho competition in Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune. They won the the Boys and Girls Under-17 and Under-21 events.
With this clean sweep in kho-kho, Maharashtra have 68 gold, 51 silver and 62 bronze medals and are atop the table. Second-placed Delhi have 47 gold, 32 silver and 44 bronze medals. Haryana, with 38 gold, 36 silver and 38 bronze medals, are third.
Kerala won two silver medals in the Under-21 kho-kho events. Delhi (Girls Under-17) and Andhra Pradesh (Boys Under-17) won the other silver medals.
Barring the Boys Under-17 final, against Andhra Pradesh, hosts Maharashtra battled in all the other finals.
The most entertaining match was in Under-17 Girls’ final, wherein Maharashtra beat Delhi 19-17. The match was decided through an extra innings, which Maharashtra won 7-5, after both scores were tied at the end of the second innings.
Haryana in three kabaddi finals
Haryana reached three of the four semi-finals of the Kabaddi competition. The only exception was in Boys Under-21 section, where Haryana was surprisingly knocked out in the league stage.
Haryana beat surprise semi-finalists West Bengal by 36 points to reach the final. They will meet Chhattisgarh, who edged past Uttar Pradesh by three points.
The Haryana girls, in the U-21 category, beat Uttar Pradesh 32-26. They will meet Himachal Pradesh in the final. Himachal fought a close match with hosts Maharashtra before winning 22-19.
Tamil Nadu’s Manish in Boys U-21 tennis final
Third seed S. Manish of Tamil Nadu reached the final of boys U-21 singles. He overcame Nitin Sinha of West Bengal 6-3, 6-2. Manish will now take on unseeded Dhruv Sunish of Maharashtra, who upset fourth seed Paramveer Bajwa of Chandigarh in the other semi-final. Dhruv beat Bajwa 6-4, 6-2.
In the U-17 girls singles semi-finals, Prerna Vichare of Maharashtra, who trains at Khar Gymkhana, overcame Lakshmi Reddy of Andhra Pradesh 7-5, 6-4 and will play Priyanshi Bhandari of Gujarat for the gold medal. The Gujarat girl beat top seed Gargi Pawar of Maharashtra 6-2, 6-2.
In the girls U-21 doubles semi-finals, Telangana’s Rashmika Bhamdipaty and Humera Shaik reached the final with a 6-0, 6-0 win against Tamil Nadu’s K. Balasubramanian and Sai Avanti Revevanur. They face Gujarat’s Zeel Desai and Vaidehi Chaudhari who defeated Sai Dedeepya and Aditi Aree of Telangana 6-0, 6-2 in the other semi-final.
Jharkhand meet Haryana in Girls Under-17 Hockey final
Jharkhand came back from a 0-3 deficit to turn the tables on Odisha and beat them 4-3 in the girls U-17 hockey competition on Thursday. They will take on Haryana, next. Haryana made the second semi-final a one-sided affair, hammering neighbours Punjab 4-0
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