Amritsar’s GNDU shoot into the lead in KIUG

Bhubaneswar: Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, and Panjab University, Chandigarh, were locked in a keen battle for honours in the inaugural Khelo India University Games here on Monday, with the former occupying the top slot with six gold and the latter riding high with a handsome tally of 16 medals.

GNDU’s Epee and Sabre boys fencing teams cornered all six gold medals, with well-deserved victories over Kolhapur’s Shivaji University, to put their varsity ahead. Panjab University were fired by their swimmers, led by Anurag Dagar who added a second gold to match
team-mate Siddhant Sejwal.

Having led off the 4x100m Freestyle Relay team’s win, Anurag returned to claim the 200m Backstroke crown. Mihir Ambre (Savitribai Phule Pune University) and Damini Gowda (Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences) also secured a double gold each.

There was a major upset in the archery field at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences campus, with Priyanka Thakran (Maharashi Dayanand University, Rohtak) edging out World Cadet Recurve Champion Komolika Bari (Kolhan University) in the semifinals. On a breezy and over-cast morning, marked by some showers, Priyanka Thakran held her nerve through a gripping contest.

She stayed abreast of the favourite, splitting points in the first two sets (26-26 and 27-27) before forging ahead by winning the third 28-26. Komolika Bari shot a 10 to open the fourth set with zest but an 8 with the third arrow let the consistent Priyanka Thakran split points. The World Champion forced the single arrow shoot-off by winning the fifth set 28-26.

“I rushed through my shot in shoot-off and should have taken time. It is a lesson that I will carry with me now,” Komolika Bari said, moments after losing the shoot-off 8-9. Priyanka Thakran, who had finished fourth in the ranking round, composed herself before releasing the arrow that secured her a place in the final against Prarthana Solanki (Sant Gadge Baba Amaravati University).

The host Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology was delighted when Ranjit Naik made his way to the men’s recurve final, stunning top-ranked Satyam Patil 6-4 in the quarterfinals. Ranjit Naik will meet Utkarsh (Punjabi University, Patiala) in the title round on Wednesday. Utkarsh surprised second-ranked Gaurav Lambe (Savitribai Phule Pune University) 6-2 in the semifinals.

The results (all finals):

Basketball
Men: University of Madras 104 (M Arvind Kumar 34, E Anantharaj 14, K Ajith Kumar 12, RS Sanjai 10, R Akash 10) beat University of Mumbai 91 (Ashley Monterio 26, Khsanuish Kapoor 22, Fauzan Shaikh 14, Rishabh Kapoor 13).

Fencing
Men’s Epee: Udaivir Singh (Guru Nanak Dev University) beat Athokpam Lenin Meetei (Lovely Professional University). Bronze medals: P Siva Subramaniyan (Periyar University) and Tushar (Dr. BR Ambedkar Marathwada University).
Team: Guru Nanak Dev University (Shubham, Udaivir Singh and Nekpreet Singh) beat Shivaji University Tushar Raosaheb Aheer, Anil Devkar and Hemant Shinde) 45-22. Bronze medals: Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, and Manipur University.
Men’s Saber: Aditya (Shivaji University) beat Mandeep (Punjabi University). Bronze medals: Sehajpreet Singh (Guru Nanak Dev University) and Abhijit Santhosh Geeta (Mahatma Gandhi University).
Team: Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (Prince, Sehajpret Singh and Amit Chib) beat Shivaji University (Pratik Jadhav, Dhananjay Jadhav and Aditya Angal). 45-33. Bronze medals: Panjab University and University of Jammu.
Women’s Foil Team: Punjab University, Chandigarh, (Simran, Kusum and Kajal) beat Sardar Patel University Sivya Zala, Kajal Chaudhary and Khushi Sameja) 45-41. Bronze medals: Kannur University and RTM Nagpur University.
Women’s Saber: Jagmeet (Guru Nanak Dev University) beat Sanya (Panjab University). Bronze medals: Alka (Kannur University) and Anitha (Punjabi University).
Team: Guru Nanak Dev University (Jasmine Kaur, Jagmeet Kaur and S Sowmiya) beat Punjabi University, Patiala (Harpreet Kaur, Anitha and Husanpreet Kaur) 45-38. Bronze medals: Kannur University and Punjabi University.

Swimming
Men
1500m Freestyle: 1. Shaunak Prasade (Maharashtra University of Health Sciences) 17:55.16; 2. Anmol Jindal (Panjab University) 18:16.06; 2. D Prakyath (Bangalore University) 18:25.57.
50m Butterfly: 1. Mihir Ambre (Savitribai Phule Pune University) 25.14 seconds; 2. Sameer Sejwal (Delhi University) 26.11.
200m Butterfly: 1. Vinayak Parihar (Delhi University) 2:09.88; 2. Suhas Maheshbabu (Visvesvaraya Technological University) 2:14.82; 3. Bhargav Sailor (Veer Narmad South Gujarat University) 2:15.06.
50m Breaststroke: 1. Ansh Arora (Delhi University 29.57 seconds; 2. Shwejal Mankar (Savitribai Phule Pune University) 29.58; 3. Rudransh Mishra (University of Mumbai) 30.20.
200m Backstroke: 1. Anurag Dagar (Panjab University) 2:08.82; 2. Thirumaran Sethumanickavel (Manonmaniam Sundaranar University) 2:09.98; 3. Prasad Kandul (Savitribai Phule Pune University) 2;17.40.
4x100m Freestyle Relay: 1. Panjab University (Anurag Dagar, Harnirat Bhinder, Deepanshu Dahiya and Siddhant Sejwal) 3:46.14; 2. Veer Narmad South Gujarat University) 3:53.79; 3. Shivaji University 3:53.83.
Women
200m Backstroke: 1. Damini Gowda (Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences) 2:36.32; 2. Nariti S Vyas (Maharaja Ganga Singh University) 2:39.60; 3. Yugandhara Shirke (Shivaji University) 2:40.94.
50m Butterfly: 1. Aarya Rajguru (Savitribai Phule Pune University) 29.74 seconds; 2. Sadhvi Dhuri (Savitribai Phule Pune University) 30.23; 3. Dolphi Sarang (Veer Narmad South Gujarat University) 30.91.
50m Breaststroke: 1. Aarti Patil (University of Mumbai) 36.28 seconds; Riddhi Bohra (Christ University) 37.11; 3. Jyoti Patil (University of Mumbai) 37.18.
400m Individual Medley: 1. Kalyani Saxena (Veer Narmad South Gujarat University) 5:24.78; 2. Rutuja Talegaokar (RTM Nagpur University) 5:29.92; 3. Firdoush Kayamkhani (Delhi University) 5:31.01

Volleyball
Men: Kurukshetra University beat SRM University 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-18). Bronze medal play-off: Mangalore University beat Lovely Professional University 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 29-27, 25-19).
Women: University of Mysore beat Panjab University 3-2 (17-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-21, 16-14). Bronze medal play-off: Himachal Pradesh University beat SRM University 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-17).