National Games Round-Up: Aneesh Gowda trumps Sajan Prakash in 200m Freestyle even as more records tumble

Ahmedabad, Oct 3: Karnataka's Aneesh S Gowda announced his arrival as the next bright prospect on the senior stage in a telling fashion, scripting a fairy-tale victory over seasoned Kerala's Sajan Prakash in the men's 200m Freestyle final in the National Games Aquatics competition at the Sardar Patel Aquatics Complex in Rajkot on Sunday (October 2).

On a day which saw five National Games records being rewritten in the pool, Aneesh Gowda's 1:51.88 was the standout effort, showing nerves of steel and immaculate focus to beat the Olympian to the gold. He had won the event at the National Championships last month too.

Assam's Astha Choudhury improved on the National Games mark that she had set in the heats this morning by winning the Women's 100m Butterfly final while Hansika Ramachandra (Karnataka) won the Women's 200m Freestyle with a Games record time of 2:07.08. Karnataka won the Men's and Women's 4x100m Freestyle events too with records.

Not to be left behind, track and field competitors also produced four National Games records in five finals at IIT Gandhinagar, with Services' High Jumper Sarvesh Anil Kushare clearing 2.27m and Uttar Pradesh's Usaid Khan winning the Decathlon with 7121 points.

Yamandeep Sharma (Rajasthan) joined Usaid as the first two men to pass 7000 points in the National Games. The Haryana men's 4x400m relay quartet and the Tamil Nadu 4x400 squad were the others who came up with New National Games Records.

Commonwealth Games 2018 bronze medallist weightlifter Deepak Lather (Haryana) clinched men's 81kg gold after a keen battle with Services' star Ajay Singh at the Mahatma Mandir. Deepak took the top spot on the podium with total lifts of 315kg while Ajay Singh finished a mere 1kg behind, despite lifting two kilos more in Clean and Jerk.

There was no such tussle in the Wrestling arena where World under-20 champion Antim Panghal walked away with the gold by defeating Madhya Pradesh's Priyanshi Prajapati by fall in the women's 53kg event without wasting much time on the mat, thanks to her meticulous homework done the night before.

It was in the Wrestling hall that Gujarat picked up one of their two bronze medals today. Khalifa Hinaben won bronze in the 53kg class to become only the second Gujarat grappler in two decades to win a National Games medal. Gujarat were assured of the other medal in Badminton Mixed Team after their team lost to Kerala in the semifinals in Surat. Telangana rallied to defeat Maharashtra to earn themselves a crack at the title against Kerala.

On the opening day of hockey competitions, Sunelit Toppo scored the winner for Odisha in their 3-2 win against Uttar Pradesh in a women's Group A match at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in Rajkot. Favourites Haryana thumped novices Gujarat 30-1 in another match., Navneet Kaur and Neha leading the scoring with five goals each. For the hosts, Muskan Kureshi got a consolation goal in the 37th minute.

In the morning, defending champions Services' Rowers were in form, with Jasveer Singh and Iqbal Singh claiming the Men's Pair title in 6:34.06 and Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar and Ashish taking the Fours crown.

(SAI)