PANCHKULA: The race for the Khelo India Youth Games crown intensified on the penultimate day of the competitions with hosts Haryana and defending champions Maharashtra pocketing five gold medals each to set up an exciting final day on Monday.
With as many as 20 medals in boxing up for grabs on Monday, Haryana (41 gold, 35 silver and 42 bronze), trailing by a solitary gold at the end of Sunday's action, will count on its 12 pugilists, who are in the finals of their respective weight categories. They are also in both the handball finals and would be expecting at least one gold. The boys are up against Delhi and their girls against Himachal Pradesh.
In contrast, Maharashtra with 42 gold, 35 silver and 30 bronze, have only four boxers in the fray.
Archer Ridhi Phor started the gold rush for the home side in the morning session before the judokas and the swimmers made it an eventful evening.
The stage was set for familiar opponents Riddhi and Tamanna to renew their on-field rivalry as they stepped out to take on each other in the recurve archery final at the Panjab University in Chandigarh. In a repeat of the riveting summit clash in the last edition, Ridhi bounced back from being 2-4 down to hand a 6-4 thrashing to her Haryana teammate Tamanna, and in a way avenged her loss in Guwahati.
The other highlight of the day was the boys recurve final, also played between Rajasthan teammates Kapish Singh and Ajay Nagarwal, with the former registering a fine come-from-behind 7-3 win.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra managed to bag only a gold despite reaching the finals of compound in both the girls and boys categories. Aditi Swami gave them the perfect start with a convincing 144-137 win over Punjab's Avneet Kaur. However, Parth Korde went down to Andhra Pradesh's Kunderu Venkatadri 144-143 to settle for the silver.
Swimmer Apeksha Fernandes boosted Maharashtra's gold count by winning the 200m butterfly and 50m breaststroke events before Diya Chitale and Rishabh Ghubde added a gold each in girls singles table tennis and boys' pole mallakhamb, respectively.
However, Maharashtra's plans of extending the lead at the top of the table were foiled by the home judokas and later by the swimmers. Ravi and Anil clinched the -81kg and +81kg judo golds before Veer Khattar grabbed the Boys 50m freestyle gold with a timing of 23.94s and Vansh Pannu made it four gold medals from the swimming pool with a timing of 27.84s in the Boys 50m breaststroke final.
Elsewhere, Kerala continued to dominate the Kalaripayattu events bagging three of the four gold medals on offer on the final day of competition to return with a rich haul of 17 gold, 18 silver and 18 bronze and stay in the top five. Karnataka retained their third place, thanks to their swimmers. The Manipur team is at the fifth spot with 17 gold, 3 silver and 5 bronze medals.
Placed a rung below Delhi, 7th-ranked Tamil Nadu girls clinched the football gold with a 2-0 win over Jharkhand, with Shanmuga Priya and Shanmugapriya, two girls with the same name, scoring a goal each. Meanwhile, the girls' basketball final will see Punjab face Tamil Nadu after the two teams registered contrasting wins in the respective semifinal matches. Favourites Punjab hammered Rajasthan 74-46 while Tamil Nadu edged past Karnataka 65-62.
