Haryana shooter Kiran held her nerve to pip Neeru in sudden-death to corner the girls’ under -21 trap gold medal in the Khelo India Youth Games here on Saturday.
In an engrossing contest, Kriran and Neeru tied on 40 after 50 shots and forced the battle for the gold to the tie-breaker. Neeru failed to shoot her third clay bird, while Kiran — daughter of a policeman from Hissar — achieved success to avenge her loss to the same opponent in mixed team finals.
“Even when I trailed after 45 shots, I knew I had a chance and took it as a practice match,” said 20-year-old Kiran, who pursued shooting one-and-a-half years ago.
Punjab’s Vanshika Shahi (451.3) convincingly won the under-21 girls’ 50m 3-position event. Ayushi Podder (446.5) of West Bengal worked her way up to beat Yashika Shinde (435.6) of Maharashtra in a tense shoot-off before bagging the silver.
Sanjana Sood (105), who beat Tamil Nadu’s N. Keerthana (45), gave Haryana another gold in under-21 skeet.
Devanshi Dhama and Sharvan Kumar earned the under-21 10m air pistol mixed team title.
With 179 medals, including 49 gold, Maharashtra remained at the peak of the table.
Swimming: Karnataka resumed its domination in the pool, claiming four more gold. Khushi Dinesh (girls’ under-17, 400m freestyle, 4:35.28) picked up her third title, while Nina Venkatesh (girls’ under-17, 100m backstroke, 1:06.47) claimed her second. Srihari Nataraj (boys’ under-21, 100m backstroke, 56.53) opened his campaign in style. Aneesh Gowda (boys’ under-17, 1500m freestyle, 16:18.46) added another gold.
Home favourite Shivangi Sarma secured her third title, winning under-21 400m freestyle with 4:34.55.
West Bengal’s Swadesh Mondal won his second crown, in boys’ under-17 00m medley (4:35.36).
Maharashtra girls took under-17 and under-21 titles in 4x100m relay.
Weightlifting: Ch. Nirmala Devi (snatch 77kg, clean and jerk 97kg, total 174kg) and Shandrella Huyam (66kg, 85kg, 151kg) fetched top honours for Manipur in girls’ 59kg under-21 and under-17 events respectively.
Ananya Patil (75kg, 89kg, 164kg) added another gold, in girls’ under-17 55kg, to Maharashtra’s kitty.
Wrestling: Delhi wrestlers – including Vishant Chillar (55kg), Aman (60kg) and Manish Goswami (65kg) – gathered three top honours in boys’ under-17 events. Maharashtra, which relied on Amol Bongarde (51kg) and Vetal Shelke (92kg), and Haryana, which benefitted from Chander Mohan (71kg) and Dushyant (80kg), had two each. Uttar Pradesh’s Neelam (50kg) and Aarju Tomar (55kg) and Madhya Pradesh’s Pooja (53kg) won girls’ under-21 titles.
