Arunachal’s Sambo holds national record
Arunachal’s Sambo holds national record
GANDHINAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh weightlifting star Sambo Lapung lifted 198 kg on his way to victory at the 36th National Games at the Mahatma Mandir Complex here to finally maintain his efforts with the National Clean and Jerk record in the 96 kg class. The latter broke into a broad smile.
Loping missed out on his date with the record at the national championships in Bhubaneswar earlier this year when the judges ruled his attempt a no-lift. But on Monday, there was no stopping the 25-year-old from reclaiming the mark from three-time Commonwealth Games medalist Vikas Thakur.
The Arunachal star joins Tamil Nadu’s female pole vaulter Rosie Meena Paulraj and fellow Tamil Nadu weightlifter N Ajith as athletes who have broken national records using the National Games platform here.
Although Services’ Jagdish bagged silver with a total of 331 kg, 15 kg less than Sambo Loping, Services’ Jagdish won three gold medals in the men’s event on Monday with his rowers. Cruise and distance runner Gulvir Singh beat more experienced rivals to win the men’s 10,000m crown.
Kirpal Singh (Punjab) stood between discus throw gold and services. Her 59.32m was a new National Games record, breaking Shakti Singh’s 25-year-old mark of 58.56 in Bangalore. Gagandeep Singh and Prashant Malik (both services) bagged lesser medals.
Safet Kaur Kamra of Punjab clinched the women’s 50m rifle 3 position crown by defeating Odisha’s Shriyanka Sarangi. Seift jumped out to a 6-0 lead. But Shriyanka fought back with some high 10s to make it 15-15 in a 16-point run. Both scored a low 9.8 in the 16th series, before Seift took gold with 10.1 to Shreyanka’s 9.8.
Maharashtra’s Harthika Shriram bagged her ninth gold medal at the National Games when she won the women’s 3m springboard diving competition at the Sardar Patel Aquatics Complex in Rajkot. Scoring 179.15 points, she immediately dedicated the gold to her coach husband and two-year-old son.
For Telangana, its badminton stars clinched the mixed team gold medal with a 3-0 victory over Kerala. The husband-wife duo of Sumeet Reddy and Ski Reddy gave the team the lead before Sai Praneeth came from a game down to beat the redoubtable HS Prannoy. Samia Umar Farooqui made quick work of Gauri Krishna to seal the gold for Telangana.
Services’ team swept the men’s rowing events, taking home all seven golds. They added three today through strong Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh (lightweight double skills), quadruple skills and coxed eight teams. The women’s event saw both Madhya Pradesh’s Vindhya Sankath and Rukmani climb the podium twice today with wins in the lightweight double sculls and quadruple sculls.
