National Games 2022 Live Updates: Squash, basketball, rowing in action

Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s LIVE UPDATES from the 36th National Games in Gujarat.

Want to know more about the events taking place today? Here is today’s National Games 2022 schedule

Here’s what happened yesterday (October 1) – From Y B Sarangi and Santadeep Dey

ATHLETICS

Amlan Borgohain and Jyothi Yarraji won exciting races to emerge as the fastest man and woman of the National Games on Saturday.

Undistracted by a false start, a gritty Amlan clocked 10.38 seconds to take the gold medal. “I just ran to win gold,” said Amlan.

Jyothi beat a star-studded field, including Hima Das, Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda, to win the women’s crown with 11.51 seconds.

“Hima-didi and Dutee-didi encouraged me during the warm-up. It helped me,” said Jyothi.

Both Amlan (200m) and Jyothi (100m hurdles) will compete in their primary events in the coming days.

Rosy Meena Paulraj took the pole vault gold with a new National Record of 4.20m.

Commonwealth Games medallist M. Sreeshankar took the silver in long jump, behind Jeswin Aldrin, who leaped 8.26m to win the gold with a new Games Record, with a jump of 7.93m.

SHOOTING

Telangana’s Esha Singh on Saturday pulled a rabbit out of the hat to win her maiden National Games gold medal in women’s 25m sports pistol at the Ahmedabad Military and Rifle Training Association in Khanpur.

Fighting to stay alive in the contest at one point during the ranking round, there wouldn’t have been many in the audience who would have given her a chance. Her father and mentor Sachin, however, never gave up hope. After she made the medal match, courtesy of a solitary extra hit in a shoot-off against Haryana’s Vibhuti Bhatia, Sachin smiled and said, “Just made it… somehow!”

ALSO READ | Manu Bhaker gracious in defeat after National Games setback, thinks her impulsiveness is gone

In the medal match, she found herself precariously placed over the edge of a precipice again, only a point ahead of bottom-placed Manu Bhaker until the end of the third five-shot series. With a perfect series (5/5) just before the elimination, she marked herself safe and even proceeded to get nine successful hits in the next 10 shots to move to the top. After that, there was no looking back as the 17-year-old finished with 26 points.

Sachin, beaming with pride, as his daughter climbed onto the podium, said, ”She has always been like this… She wins it out of nowhere.”

Haryana’s Rhythm Sangwan  (25) won silver, while Abhidnya Ashok Patil (19) of Maharashtra won bronze.

Meanwhile, Haryana toppled favourite Madhya Pradesh (MP) 17-9 to take the 10m air rifle mixed team honours home. Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan were adjudged the winners of the two bronze medals.

MP’s Shreya Agrawal, who was paired with Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, started the gold medal match with a 9.9 and that kind of reflected what was to befall.

On the other hand, Haryana’s Ramita, who is quickly climbing up the echelons of Indian shooting with solid recent performances in ISSF events, and Arshdeep Singh got off to a confident start, maintaining a clean sheet till 4-0 when both shooters registered 10.8 each.

Momentarily, it seemed like there might be a change in trend, as Aishwary hit the perfect score – 10.9 – immediately after a team timeout to take matters to 7-13, but the success was shortlived.

In the bronze medal matches, Shreya Saksena and Vidit Jain of Uttar Pradesh were no match for Team Rajasthan (Divyansh Singh Panwar and Nisha Kanwar), the final score reading 16-8. Punjab’s Arjun Babuta and Samiksha Dhingra were two high series short as Tamil Nadu’s Sri Karthik Sabari Raj and R. Narmada Nithin won the race to the 16-point mark.

WRESTLING

Shivanee Pawar emerged as the worthy winner of the women’s 50kg title as she displayed true spirit of sports to assist her injured opponent to get off the mat in the wrestling arena of the National Games on Saturday.

The 23-year-old, a World under-23 silver medallist, gave a good account of herself as she defeated Ankush, who has been selected for the World under-23 championships, ‘by fall’ in the 50kg final.

Also Read | Recovering from head injury, Bajrang Punia shifts focus on Olympics

“Like me, Ankush is part of the National camp. She got injured during the first round of the final and lost. This much sympathy is expected from any wrestler,” said Shivanee, hailing from Bhopal and now settled in Delhi.

Radhika claimed the women’s 68kg gold.

In men’s freestyle, Dinesh defeated Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Mohit Grewal 5-0 to take the 125kg crown.

Anuj Kumar beat Sharwan 8-6 for the 65kg title.

Also Read | Bajrang Punia says use of ‘rigid tape’ during World Championship affected focus

In Greco Roman, Deepandhu outclassed Ravi 8-0 in the 97kg summit clash and Sajan beat Rafiq 10-1 in the 77kg gold medal match.

WEIGHTLIFTING

N. Ajith broke Achinta Sheuli’s clean and jerk National Record and upset the Commonwealth Games champion to win the men’s 73kg crown at the weightlifting arena of the National Games on Saturday.

Ajith improved upon his national-title winning performance of 297kg in March to total 315kg and beat an off-colour Achinta by 20kg.

As Achinta faltered in his first two snatch attempts and managed 130kg, Ajith hoisted 141kg to establish a handsome lead.

Ajith achieved 174kg in his second clean and jerk effort to break Achinta’s national mark by one kg and ensure his gold.

“I was aiming to break both clean and jerk and snatch (145kg) records, but I am glad I broke one,” said Ajith, aspiring to qualify for the Olympics.

Achinta, who totalled 313kg in the CWG, lifted 165kg in clean and jerk to take the silver with an aggregate of 295kg.

“My coach is working on technical issues in my snatch. After the CWG, I had some trouble between the hamstring and hips. I was undergoing rehab. With whatever training I did, I’m happy with my performance,” said Achinta.

ARCHERY

Seasoned archers Rajat Chauhan (711) and V. Jyothi Surekha (705) topped the men and women ranking rounds in the compound competitions at the Sanskardham campus in Ahmedabad.