Khelo India Youth Games: Maharashtra swimmer Palak Joshi improved on her 200m backstroke national mark while Tamil Nadu weightlifter R.P Keerthana won the girls’ 81kg category by breaking Snatch and overall National Youth records on the penultimate day of the Khelo India Youth Games 2023 being held in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday.Joshi, who represented India in the 2022 Asian Games, was miles ahead of the competition as she stopped the clock at 2:18.59s, setting a timing lower than her senior national mark of 2:18.90s set at the National Aquatics championships in Hyderabad last July.
The Swimming Federation of India will recognise it as the ‘Best Indian Performance’ as SFI only considers the best performances in the National Games as National Records.
Telangana’s Sri Nithya Sagi won the silver with a time of 2:25.83s while Karnataka’s Naisha took home the bronze with a time of 2:25.83s.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu weightlifter R.P Keerthana broke the National Youth Record in Snatch, Clean & Jerk and Overall to clinch the gold in the girls’ 81kg category. Keerthana lifted a total of 188 kgs, including 85kg in snatch and 103kg in Clean & Jerk to finish ahead of statemate Oviya K (184kg) with Uttar Pradesh’s Santushti Choudhary taking home the bronze with a total lift of 162kg.
The earlier record in Snatch (81kg), Clean & Jerk (104kg) and overall (185kg) were held by Ch. Srilakshmi of Andhra Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra added nine more gold medals to their tally to cross the half-century mark gold medals.
World champion and 2022 Asian Games bronze medallist Aditi Gopichand Swami led Maharashtra’s charge at the archery venue in Nehru Park, winning the compound girls’ and mixed team gold medals while Pruthviraj Ghadge and Sharvani Shende won the recurve mixed team final. Shende also won the silver medal in the girls’ recurve category while Tejal Salve won the silver medal in compound girls and Mihir Apar took home the bronze from the boys’ compound event.
In Madurai, Maharashtra Kho-kho team lived up to their favourite tag to clinch both the gold medals. The boys defeated Delhi 40-10 while the girls got the better of Odisha 33-24. Taarini Suri and Shravani Walekar then took Maharashtra to 50 gold medals when they defeated Odisha’s Pragati Parida and Vishakha Toppo 21-13, 20-22, 21-16 in the girls doubles final at the TNPESU badminton hall.
In shooting, Telangana’s Yuvek Battula and Venkat Lakku bagged the mixed team gold with Madhya Pradesh’s Vanshika Tiwari and Udyaman Rathore bagging the silver and Punjab’s Zorawar Bedi and Risham Guron taking home the bronze.
