Haryana go past Maharashtra on medals tally in Khelo India Youth Games

Haryana grapplers secured four gold medals to go past Maharashtra in the Khelo India Youth Games on Monday. Underlining their ascendancy on the wrestling mat, Haryana grapplers added four gold medals to take their count to an impressive 16 gold, eight silver and 16 bronze medals. This includes a couple of crucial gold in weightlifting and one each in shooting, yoga, cycling and gatka.

Defending champions Maharashtra, who had taken the lead on Day 1, occupy the second place with 13 gold, six silver and seven bronze medals. Manipur, who collected six gold in thang-ta over two days, were third after picking an additional gold in cycling. Jammu and Kashmir created a stir by winning their first gold in the traditional martial art discipline, with Sumit getting the better of Madhya Pradesh's Ashish in the 60kg category.

Haryana wrestlers have expectedly been in devastating form on home turf. They had bagged all five gold on the opening day of the competition and seemed set for another clean sweep on Day 2, especially with two of the five final bouts being all-Haryana affairs. But Chandigarh's Yashveer Malik had other plans.

Displaying strong defensive skills, he defeated Nishant 6-2 in the 65kg Greco Roman final. It all began with Suraj defeating Maharashtra's Vishwajit More by technical superiority. In the weightlifting arena, Bengai Tani opened Arunachal Pradesh's gold medal account with a total lift of 264 kg in the boys 67kg weight category.