Pune swimmer Mihir Ambre secured two more gold medals by winning the under-21 boys’ 100m butterfly crown and contributing in 4x100m medley relay victory as Maharashtra collected four titles on the third day of swimming at the Khelo India Youth Games here on Sunday.
Ambre’s time of 54.91, below his personal best of 54.1, was good enough to earn him a convincing victory ahead of Delhi’s Sameer Sejwal (57.43) and Karnataka’s Sanjay C.J. (57.52).
The 19-year-old, who had also won the 50m butterfly, repeated his Khelo India performance in Pune where he had claimed both titles in under-17 age group.
Apeksha Fernandes (girls’ under-17, 400m individual medley, 5:12.19), Kenisha Gupta (girls’ under-17, 100m freestyle, 59.14) lifted Maharashtra’s showing.
Mihir Ambre, Rudranish Mishra and Aaron Fernandes helped Maharashtra make light of the five-second lead that India’s best backstroke swimmer Srihari Nataraj of Karnataka had opened up over Suchit Patil. Maharashtra timed 3:56.83 to win the 4x100m medley relay by 0.24 seconds.
Anurag Singh (boys’ under-21, 400m freestyle, 4:08.09), Bikram Changmai (boys’ under-17, 100m butterfly, 56.64) and boys’ under-17 team (4x100 medley, 4:00.63) earned three crowns for Delhi.
Shivangi Sarma of Assam claimed her fourth gold medal (girls’ under-21, 100m freestyle, 59.26) in a lop-sided contest, featuring only four swimmers.
WEIGHTLIFTING: Maharashtra lifters claimed three gold medals in the weightlifting arena.
Prajakta Khalkar (snatch 81kg, clean and jerk 100kg, total 181kg) took the girls’ under-21 64kg title, while Abhishek Nipane (114, 154, 268) and Kiran Marathe (111, 140, 251) won the 73kg boys’ under-21 and under-17 crowns respectively.
Tamil Nadu had a fruitful day as Y. Poorna Sri (75, 90, 165) picked up the 64kg title and M. Lekhamaalya (75, 95, 170) secured the 71kg top honour in girls’ under-17 events.
WRESTLING: Haryana wrestlers rose to the expectation to secure five titles, while Maharashtra and Punjab athletes took two apiece in under-21 events.
Rohit Dahiya (61kg), Akash Dahiya (65kg), Sanjeev Kumar (70kg) among boys, Tamanna (68kg) and Karuna (76kg) among girls boosted Haryana.
Vijay Patil (57kg) and Pruthviraj Patil (97kg) were the gold medallists from Maharashtra, while Prateek Singh (74kg) and Loveleen Kaur (62kg) won top honours for Punjab.
Bharti Baghal (57kg) was the lone winner from Uttar Pradesh.
KHO KHO: Maharashtra made a clean sweep, winning all four titles in under-21 and under-17 boys and girls.
Maharashtra inflated its tally to 193 medals, containing 60 gold, at the top.
