Olympian fencer Bhavani Devi defends National Games gold, IOA notifies handball participating teams

Olympian fencer CA Bhavani Devi, representing Tamil Nadu, defended her National Games god medal in the women’s sabre individual event after beating S Sowmiya of Kerala 15-5 in the final here on Thursday.

Devi had won gold in the same event in the 2022 National Games in Gujarat.

Shiksha Ballouria of Himachal Pradesh and Jagmeet Kaur of Punjab won the bronze medals.

Babu Gaonkar gave Goa their first gold medal of the Games after winning the men’s laser run event in Modern Pentathlon at Ponda. Ajay and Ravi of Haryana won the silver and bronze.

Later in the day, Babu teamed up with Seeta Gosavi to win the silver in the laser run mixed relay where the Haryana pair of Anju and Ravi won the gold and Yoginee Salunke and Shahaji Sargar of Maharashtra clinched the bronze.

In the women’s laser run, Ujjala of Haryana clinched the gold ahead of Yoginee Umakant Salunke of Maharashtra and Neha Yadav of Madhya Pradesh.

In the men’s laser run, Haryana won gold followed by Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra with the silver and bronze respectively. In the women’s team event, Madhya Pradesh won gold while Maharashtra returned with silver and Goa the bronze.

At the Campal Sports Village, Popy Hazarika of Assam clinched the gold in the women’s weightlifting 59kg category with a total lift of 191kg (86kg snatch, 105kg C&J). Davinder Kaur of Punjab won the silver with a total lift of 182kg while M Deepanayomi of Andhra Pradesh lifted 180kg to take the bronze.

In the men’s 67kg category, Mizoram’s Lalhunthara lifted a total of 281kg to clinch the gold, edging out Subhash Lahre (280kg) of Services by just a kilogram. Arunachal Pradesh’s Bengia Tani won bronze with a lift of 277kg.

In gymnastics at the Peddem Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, Yogeshwar Singh of Haryana clinched gold followed by Sidharth Verma of Uttar Pradesh and Gaurav Kumar of Services who won silver and bronze in men’s all-round individual event.

Pranati Nayak, representing Odisha, won the gold in the women’s all-round individual event held late on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the uncertainty over the holding of handball competitions ended on Thursday after the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) named eight states, including host Goa, to participate in the men’s and women’s events.

Eight men’s and women’s teams were also named for the beach handball competition.

A letter to that effect was issued by Amitabh Sharma, who is the chairman of Games Technical Conduct Committee, and appointed by the IOA.

The participating teams for the handball competition were based on the rankings of 2021 National Championships. The participating teams for the beach handball competition were based on the rankings of 2015 National Games in Kerala.

According to the letter, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in its order dated October 16, 2023, following a petition, did not award the responsibility of hosting the handball sport in the 37th National Games to any federation and said “the question as which body would be the national sports federation is yet to be finally decided and thus the said player cannot be accepted at this stage”.

The IOA has also requested the SAI to provide a list of qualified technical officials to conduct the handball competitions in the National Games.