National Games 2023: Karnataka swimming sensation Dhinidhi Desinghu wins fourth gold

Panaji: Karnataka’s 14-year-old swimming sensation Dhinidhi Desinghu won her fourth gold medal of the ongoing National Games, anchoring her team to the top spot in 4x200m freestyle relay in Panaji on Wednesday. Olympian Sajan Prakash won his second gold medal as he finished on top of the 200m butterfly podium with a Games record, stopping the clock at 1:59.38s. Service’s SP Likith clinched gold in the men’s 50m breaststroke event with a timing of 28.71s ahead of S Danush of Tamil Nadu (29.03s) and Vidith S Shankar of Karnataka (29.07). Chahat Arora (34.09s) of Punjab defended her women’s 50m breaststroke title, leaping ahead of Karnataka’s AK Linyesha (34.11). Harshitha Jayaram of Kerala won the bronze. Karnataka 4x200m freestyle relay teams in both men’s and women’s categories won the gold creating Games records. Seema of Himachal Pradesh completed a double by securing the gold in 5000m in athletics. She had clinched gold in 10000m also. Ankit Kumar of Uttarakhand pipped Abhishek Pal and Gulveer Singh to win the gold in the men’s 10000m. Andhra completed the relay double in the women’s category, winning the gold medal ahead of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. In the men’s category, SSCB won the gold, dipping ahead of Tamil Nadu who won the silver. Kerala won the bronze medal. Earlier in the day, Services rowers secured six gold medals, which helped the defending champions to pull away from Haryana in the medals tally behind runaway leaders Maharashtra. Services increased their medal tally to 56 medals, including 32 golds. Maharashtra lead the table with a total of 134 medals including 56 golds. Apart from SSCB, who swept all the rowing gold medals in the men’s category, Madhya Pradesh won three gold in the women’s section, while Kerala won two and Haryana won the other gold. In the men’s quadruple sculls event, Asian Games bronze medal-winning team of Satnam Singh, Parminder Singh, Jakar Singh, Sukhmeet Singh of SSCB won gold. Another Asian Games bronze medal-winning pair of Babulal Yadav and Lekh Ram won gold for SSCB in the men’s pair event. Olympians Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh of SSCB won gold in the men’s lightweight double scull pair event. At the Fatorda Multipurpose Stadium, India’s No 1-ranked tennis player Ankita Raina guided Gujarat to gold in the women’s team event. In a match of heavyweights, Ankita beat Asian Games gold medallist Rutuja Bhosale of Maharashtra 6-4, 6-2 to seal the gold medal for her state. Vaidehee Chaudhari had earlier beaten Vaishnavi Adkar 6-3, 6-0 to give Gujarat the lead in the match. In the men’s category, Karnataka upset favourites Tamil Nadu 2-1 to clinch the gold. Manish Suresh Kumar gave the perfect start for Tamil Nadu beating Suraj Praboh in straight sets. In the second singles, Asian Games medallist Ramkumar Ramanathan was stunned by Prajwal SD Dev as he was beaten 1-6, 1-6. In the deciding doubles rubber, Ojes Teja partnered Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan but the pair of Prajwal S D Dev and Adil Kayanpur beat them in straight sets to give Karnataka a well-earned gold medal. At Colva Beach, Kerala beat Goa 7-5 to secure the first gold medal in beach football at the National Games. Lakshadweep won the bronze beating Punjab 4-2.