Maharashtra lifts overall championship in National Games
The Hindu
Maharashtra wins 37th Nat. Games, 80 golds; Srihari Nataraj (Karnataka) & Sanyukta Prasen Kale & Pranati Nayak (Odisha) best athletes. Services 2nd, Haryana 3rd. Top 5: Maharashtra (228 medals), Services (126), Haryana (192), Madhya Pradesh (112), Kerala (87).
Maharashtra, with 228 medals including 80 golds, topped the medal table and took the Raja Bhalindra Singh Trophy for the overall championship in the 37th National Games which ended in Goa on Thursday.
Maharashtra’s triumph ended Services’ reign at the top since the 2007 Games in Guwahati. Services finished second and Haryana was third.
Karnataka swimmer Srihari Nataraj (8 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) was adjudged the best male athlete of the Games while gymnasts Sanyukta Prasen Kale and Pranati Nayak of Odisha (4 gold, 1 silver each) were named as the best female athletes.
Final medal tally (top 5, read as State, gold, silver, bronze and total): 1. Maharashtra (80, 69, 79 = 228), 2. Services (66, 27, 33 = 126), 3. Haryana (62, 55, 75 = 192), 4. Madhya Pradesh (37, 36, 39 = 112), 5. Kerala (36, 24, 27 = 87).
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.