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 in Panaji 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,