Khelo India University Games: Chandigarh University becomes overall champion; Pratyasa Ray voted most successful athlete
Lovely Professional, Guru Nanak Dev University finished second and third respectively, while defending champions Panjab University finished fourth.
Guwahati: Chandigarh University clinched the overall championships of the Khelo India University Games, with their boxers adding five gold, one silver and four bronze medals to ensure that none of their closest contenders had even an outside chance of laying claim to the top spot place. The Khelo India University Games, which started on February 17, were officially declared closed by Assam Sports Minister Shrimati Nandita Gorlosa at the Sarusajai Sports Complex on Thursday.
Vikash (men 51-54 kg), Harsh (men 57-60 kg), Deepak (men 60-63.5 kg), Priya (women 54-57 kg) and Pranjal (women 66-70 kg) bagged the gold medals for Chandigarh University, who took home the KIUG crown for the first time in four editions with a total of 71 medals, including 32 gold, 18 silver and 21 bronze.
Lovely Professional University was a distant second with 20 gold, 14 silver and eight bronze while Guru Nanak Dev University finished third with 12 gold, 20 silver and 19 bronze and only a contingent apart from the champions was to cross the line of To exceed 50 medals.
Defending champions Panjab University made a late surge by winning five gold, two silver and three bronze medals in the boxing competitions – the men’s event was held in Gangtok, Sikkim, while the women’s at the Nehru Stadium, Guwahati – finishing fourth with a total of 12 gold, 12 silver and 16 bronze.
Second edition champions Jain University, who topped the table for the first few days thanks to their dominance in the swimming races, finished fifth with a total of 12 gold, 7 silver and 6 bronze medals.
But it was the overall prowess of Chandigarh University that made the ultimate difference as they took seven golds in wrestling, eight in athletics, three in weightlifting and swimming, two in fencing and one each in kabaddi, rugby, judo and badminton.
Chandigarh University has been on the rise since ranking 34th in the inaugural edition in Odisha. They finished 20th in the second edition and had improved their position to 11th in the last edition in Lucknow.
Swimmers Pratyasa Ray of Utkal University with four gold, one silver and one bronze was the most successful female athlete of the Games while the honor of most successful male athlete went to Xavier Michael Dsouza of Jain University with four gold medals.
The fourth edition of the Games in Northeast India also saw five new Games records set in athletics. Vikash of Chandigarh University created the first record of the Games on Day 1 of the athletics competition in men’s 1500 meters with javelin thrower Jyoti (Chaudhary Devi Lal University), pole vaulter M Gowtham and long jumper Vishnu (University of Madras) and 800 meters runner Amandeep Kaur from Panjab University has added the next two days to that list.
In the javelin throw, Deepika from Chandigarh University had set a new Games record on her third throw, only for Jyoti to eclipse her mark and get her name in the record books.