Khelo India Youth Games: Haryana’s Sanjana improved on her National Youth records in Snatch, Clean and Jerk and Overall weight to clinch the girls’ 76kg weightlifting gold while Maharashtra’s Sayali Wani came back from the brink to win the girls’ singles table tennis gold in the Khelo India Youth Games 2023 on Monday.Sanjana began by breaking her previous snatch record of 86kg twice, successfully lifting 87kg and 90kg in her second and third attempts and then successfully executed 113kg and 116kg lifts in Clean and Jerk as she lifted 31kgs more than Maharashtra’s Grishma Thorat, who won the silver with a total lift of 167kg.
Uttar Pradesh lifter Parv Chaudhary also improved on the clean and jerk national youth record in the boys’ 96kg weight category with a lift of 160kg on his way to gold. He lifted a total of 280 kg with Andhra Pradesh’s Arunesh Babu (258kg) and Haryana’s Aditya (249kg) taking the silver and bronze respectively.
At the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University complex, Maharashtra’s Sayali Wani showed tremendous resilience to overcome the challenge of West Bengal’s Nandini Saha 8-11, 8-11, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-0, 11-6.
The Nashik girl looked down and out after losing the first three games but picked herself up and showed the mental strength to go on the attack to turn the tables on her opponents. The bronze medal went to Pritha Vartikar of Maharashtra.
Vartikar and Wani also teamed up to bag the girls’ doubles crown defeating state-mates Taneesha Kotecha and Risha Mirchandani 3-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-6 as Maharashtra extended their lead at the top of the table with their swimmers also contributing four more gold medals on Monday.
With two days of competition left, Maharashtra sit pretty on the top of the table with 44 gold, 39 silver and 44 bronze.
Maharashtra’s Rishab Das bagged three gold medals at the SDAT Aquatic Stadium clinching the top spot in boys 50m backstroke and 100m freestyle and then teaming up with Shlok Khopade, Salil Bhagwat and Ronak Sawant to win the 4×100 medley relay.
Rujuta Rajadnya of Maharashtra added the 50m backstroke gold to her 50m freestyle triumph with a timing of 31.04s. Karnataka’s Aarushi Agarwal took the silver with a time of 31.18s and Deeksha Sivakumar of Tamil Nadu took the bronze with a time of 31.23s.
Haryana bagged three of six gold medals on offer from the wrestling arena at the Rajarathinam stadium to increase their lead over third-placed Tamil Nadu, who could not add to their gold medal count on Monday.