Ankushita, Lulina keep Assam’s golden hopes alive
GANDHINAGAR: Boxers Ankushita Boru and Lulina Borgohen kept Assam’s hopes alive by reaching the finals of their respective weight divisions here on Tuesday after finishing in the top-15 at the 36th National Games.
Assam is currently at 15th place with 23 medals (7 gold, 10 silver and 6 bronze), and Ankushita and Lulaina have one gold each to leapfrog Telangana (with an additional gold) at 14th place.
Services are on top and are all set to win the Raja Bhilandra Singh Trophy as the champion team at the National Games for the fourth time in a row.
Maharashtra and Haryana are engaged in a fierce battle for the second spot. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are in their own competition as the games go to end on Wednesday.
At the Mahatma Mandir on Tuesday, Ankushita opened the northeast derby with Manipur’s Elina Thonaojm in a battle of supremacy for the 66kg welterweight title, before Tokyo bronze medalist Lulina of Gujarat joined the club by easily defeating Ruchita Rajput in 5 of the women’s Others from the region to reach the category semi-final finals include Malsumthalwanga of Mizoram in the men’s 75kg middleweight division.
However, it was heartbreaking for Assam’s multiple Asian Championship medalist Shiva Thapa, who lost 2-3 in a close encounter against Services’ Akash.
His teammates Jamuna Buru (57kg) and Pwilao Basumatary (60kg) also bagged bronze medals. Other boxers from the region who won bronze medals were Manipur’s Parvesh Konthujam (Women’s 60kg) and Mason Moeringtham (Men’s 60kg), Tripura’s Kiran Rupini (Men’s 51kg) and Mizoram’s Lalavomauma (Men’s 57kg).
The Wushu arena in the exhibition hall opposite the Mahatma Mandir had a good focus where Abhishek Jamwal won Jammu and Kashmir’s first gold medal, as well as Ladakh’s Owais Sarwar Ahingar who would win the first two medals for the Union Territory. Participating in the National Games for the first time.
Today, Maharashtra has a four-gold lead over Haryana thanks to dominating the softball men’s title and the Yogasana Artistic Group medals. Haryana, who won gold here through Ravi Panchal in Wushu and the women’s hockey team in Rajkot, will hope that success in the boxing ring tomorrow will help them finish second behind Services.
Karnataka and Haryana completed their rankings to claim the men’s and women’s hockey gold medals respectively at the Major Dhyan Chand Hockey Stadium in Rajkot.
After the teams were tied 2-2 in regulation time, Karnataka defeated Uttar Pradesh in a sudden-death tiebreaker and scored four goals in the penalty shootout.
Haryana women beat their arch-rivals Punjab by a single goal to reclaim the trophy, scored by Rani Rampal.
Karnataka’s win in the men’s hockey final via sudden death was their 27th gold medal and helped them maintain their lead over Tamil Nadu in the race for fourth place.
Although Tamil Nadu bagged a gold medal in triathlon with its mixed team and Kerala bagged two canoeing and kayaking gold medals today, Karnataka led the way.
