Ten gold medals in a single day helped Panjab University, Chandigarh (PUC), soar to the top of the third Khelo Indian University Games (KIUG) 2022 Uttar Pradesh (UP) medal tally, leaving behind rivals Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, who are now second, with initial leaders and defending champions Jain University, Karnataka, now finding themselves in third position.
PUC picked up five golds in Rowing, two each in Athletics and Shooting and one in Judo, to end the day with a tally of 21 gold, 12 silver and 16 bronze medals.Competition day 9 of the Games also saw three new Games records being created, all at the Athletics competition at the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College (GGSSC) grounds in Lucknow.
The Men's Pole Vault, Women's Javelin and Heptathlon KIUG records were re-written.Sidharth AK of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam (MGU, Kottayam) cleared 4.90m to create a new record in Men's Pole Vault while Harita of Chaudhary Bansi Lal University (CBLU) sank the ols Women's Javelin record with a throw of 50.14m enroute to gold.
Harita's mate Pooja then made a new games mark in Heptathlon accumulating 4991 points over her seven events.A total of 15 golds were decided on the final day of the Athletics competition and MGU, Kottayam were the most successful with three golds.
Panjab win 11 golds in Rowing
In Rowing the table toppers bagged five of the 15 golds on offer on the final day at the Ramgarh Taal in Gorakhpur. Panjabi University picked up three while Calicut University won two gold medals. Overall, PUC won 11 gold, four silver and six bronze medals in Rowing for a total of 21 medals, a big reason for their top position in the standings.
Their winners on the day included Ravinder and Dinesh Kumar in the Light weight Men's Doubles Sculls, Sonu Verma, Ajeeth, Sudarshan Lamba and Gurpreet Singh in the Light Weight Men's Fours, Khushpreet Kaur and Diljot Kaur in the Light Weight Women's Doubles Sculls, Khushpreet, Diljot, Gurbani and Poonam in the Women's Fours Sculls and finally Sukhdeep, Rajat, Sahil and Aditya in the Men's Fours 500 meter races.
Pair of Manu, Sarabjot win Mixed Team Pistol gold
Over at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range, Olympian Manu Bhaker and India international Sarabjot Singh won the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team gold medal with a facile 16-2 victory over Varun Dubey and Vibhuti Bhatia of Delhi University.
These were the first of two golds won at the range by PUC with Prabh Pratap Singh Chahal and Parinaaz Dhaliwal winning the Mixed Team Skeet competition. It was Parinaaz's second gold at the KIUG 2022 UP, after she had won the women's individual Skeet gold earlier.
Recurve Archery, Football finalists identified
Across three venues of Lucknow, finalists in the Recurve Archery and Football disciplines were also identified on the day. At the BBD University Cricket Ground, Guru Jambeshwar University (GJU) and Punjabi University reached two finals each in Recurve Archery.
Pawan of the latter will take on Ankit Rana of Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) in the Men's Recurve final while Bhargaviben Bhagora of Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University (HNGU) will clash with Anshika Kumari of Kolhan University, Jharkhand, for the Women's individual Recurve title on Friday.
On the same day, Adamas University of Kolkata will take on Punjabi University in the Men's Football final at the GGSSC, Lucknow. Also, at the Ekana Sportz City, GJU will take on CBLU in the women's football final.
While Punjabi University were 2-1 winners over MGU, Kottayam in their semi-final today, Adamas had to come through penalties over GNDU, Amritsar. GJU, Hisar were 3-2 winners over GNDU in the first women's semis while CBLU defeated Annamalai University, Chidambaram, by a solitary goal.
Yogasana to begin in Varanasi
Competition day 10 will see the commencement of the Yogasana competitions at the IIT-BHU Indoor hall in Varanasi. The three-day competition will culminate with the Closing Ceremony of the Games in the same city.