Maharashtra edge ahead in Khelo India medals tally

New Delhi  : Maharashtra turned in a fine all-around performance in athletics, wrestling and swimming with two golds each to edge ahead of Haryana and Karnataka in a tight race for medals on Day 3 of the inaugural Khelo India School Games (KISG).

All three teams have nine gold each, but Maharashtra had a total of 25 medals as compared to 23 for Haryana and 20 for Karnataka.

Maharashtra has nine gold, seven silver and nine bronze while Haryana have nine gold, six silver and eight bronze and Karnataka nine gold, five silver and six bronze.

Delhi with seven gold, Tamil Nadu with four and Kerala with three, follow that order.

Maharashtra had a good day in most of the medal events on Friday, while Haryana had a great day in athletics and wrestling. Karnataka managed two more swimming gold on Friday.

Uttarakhand's Anu Kumar and Haryana's Pooja became double gold medallists in athletics while Nisar Ahmad of Delhi emerged as the fastest boy of the meet, despite running an all-out 100 metres twice in a span of 20 minutes.

Nisar, who had to postpone his training trip to Jamaica in order to compete at the KISG, ran the 100m twice in a span of 20 minutes. 

He was so focused that he did not hear the recall whistle following a false start and he went all out in 10.77 seconds. The race was pushed to 20 minutes later to allow the athletes time to recover.

After dominating the first day at the pool, Karnataka won just two of the nine gold on offer on Friday. The only other state to win two gold was Maharashtra.

Fancied Saloni Dalal and Khushi Dinesh picked the gold for Karnataka, while Maharashtra also picked up two. Delhi, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh swimmers won one each.

Karnataka swimmers Khushi and Saloni picked up their second gold medals of the meet on the second day of swimming.

Khushi claimed her second gold medal in the 200m freestyle event ahead of Delhi's Annie Jain and Aaryan Bhosle. 

In the women's 100m breaststroke event, Saloni Dalal clinched the second gold medal by finishing comfortably ahead of Aaliyah Singh of Uttar Pradesh and Sharon Shaju of Maharashtra.

In the grueling 400m individual medley, Firdoush Kayamkhani representing Delhi dug deep into her reserves to set the pool ablaze with a defining performance when she claimed her second gold.

The shooting finals also began with Zeena Khitta (Chandigarh) winning the 10m Air Rifle for Girls, while Shahu Mane (Maharashtra) won the 10m Air Rifle Boys event.