Richa shines with two gold

Delhi’s Richa Mishra was again the star of the day as five records were crushed swimming in the 34th National Games. She picked up two gold medals with record timings on Tuesday. Swimming impression Virdhawal Khade rewrote his earlier record in the heats as went on to improve it in the final to emerge the fastest swimmer of the meet.

Karnataka’s Gagan A P and compatriot Rohit Havaldar smashed the remaining two records of the day. Battling a stomach upset, 27-year-old Delhi girl Richa clocked 05.09:47s to improve nine-year-old record of 05.09:91 in the 400m person medley. She also shattered her four year old record (02.29:34) in the 200m backstroke when she swam with a timing of 02.26:82.

While Chennai’s A.V. Jayveena became the youngest swimmer in the record of National Games to win medals. She won bronze in the 200 meters crawl and relay. In wushu, Manipur topped medal tally by winning ten of 18 gold medals on offer. For Manipur Roshan won the medals in chang quan, jian shu and qiang shu. Madhya Pradesh also won four wushu gold. Delhi and Haryana won two each.

Meanwhile, after a day’s suspension, women’s football resumed, and defending champion Orissa beat Haryana 6-0 and Manipur crushed Tripura 24-0.In shooting, Maharashtra women dominated the 10m air rifle occasion by claiming both the individual gold medals. Priya Agarwal clinched the gold pipping statemate Pooja Ghatkar. Maharashtra also clinched the team gold totalling 1171, while MP (1166) bagged the silver and Delhi (1163) took the bronze

Khade, Richa launch gold rush

A triple gold show by Madhya Pradesh karatekas helped the state take the Day I honours, even as Indian swimming sensation Virdhawal Khade and dope-tainted Richa Mishra set two meet records each, in the 34th National Games, on Sunday. Madhya Pradesh also bagged two silver and one bronze in karate-do contest held at Shiekh Bhikhari Administrative Block at the Mega Sports Complex in Ranchi. Riding Khade's performance at the Veer Budhu Bhagat Aquatic Stadium in the Mega Sports Complex, Maharashtra were second on the table with three gold and eight bronze. Jharkhand were not far behind as the hosts finished the day on third spot with two gold medals in taekwondo competition held at Ganpat Rai Indoor Stadium in the Mega Sports Complex.

The hosts also had two silver and two bronze. Even as the mismanagement by the organisers continuous to rule in the 33-discipline meet, Khade and Richa provided the big push with two meet records each in the swimming competition. The contest also saw a fifth record when Karnataka men’s 100m freestyle team of JP Arjun, AP Gagan, Aditya Roshan and Ashwin Menon scripted their names in Games history. It was also a memorable day for Delhi girl Richa, who was mired in doping controversy ahead of the Common wealth Games last year, shocking two meet records en route her double gold.

The Kolhapur lad had a comfortable two seconds lead over his nearest opponent Rohit Havaldar of Karnataka as he went on to better his previous Games best timing of 01.54:18s.Havaldar (1.56:16s) and AP Gagan (1.56:93s) completed second and third, respectively, to give a silver-bronze end for Karnataka. In his second event of the day, Khade eclipsed the previous Games best timing of 00.57:38 by Akbar Ali Mir (2002) in the 100m butterfly for his second gold with a meet record of 55:56.Khade had more than two seconds lead over Delhi's Tarun Tokas (58:21) who settled for silver, while Bengal opened their account with a bronze courtesy Sumanta Nath (59.62).