Khelo India Winter Games 2025: Army Men In Ice Hockey Final; Maharashtra Lead Medal Tally

The Khelo India Winter Games 2025 men's ice-hockey final on Monday will be a repeat of last year's gold medal-round match. On Sunday, Indian Army got the better of hosts UT-Ladakh 2-1 while ITBP defeated Himachal Pradesh 3-1 to set a mouth-watering title clash at the NDS Stadium complex.

The penultimate day of the first leg of the Khelo India Winter Games 2025 brought mixed results for hosts Ladakh even as Maharashtra went past Telangana and Karnataka on the medal tally. With a gold, a silver and a bronze from their skaters on Sunday, Maharashtra lead the standings with eight medals (2 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze).

Ladakh skaters started the day on a bright note at the NDS Stadium. In the 1000m short track for women, Skarma Tsultim (2:17.91 sec) and Padma Angmo (2:21.13 sec) did a Ladakh one-two leaving Madhya Pradesh's Udreka Singh (2:22.74 sec) third. Skarma's maiden KIWG gold was Ladakh's second this year.

With a total of four medals (2 gold and 2 silvers), Ladakh are joint second in the medal standings with Tamil Nadu, which won two golds - women's relay and men's 500m long track -- on Sunday.

Maharashtra skaters won a gold (men's relay), a silver (women's relay) and a bronze (men's 500 long track) on Sunday. Karnataka did not win any medal today but Tamil Nadu won both gold (Avikshit Vijay Viswanath) and silver (Selvakumar Muthukumar) at Gupuks Pond where the men's 500 long track race was held.

In the afternoon session, Indian Army became the first team to enter the final of the men's ice hockey competition. The defending champions warded off a stiff challenge from hosts Ladakh to win a thriller 2-1.

In another full house at the NDS Stadium, the Army vs Ladakh was such a fiercely contested encounter. Tempers often