Lawn Bowls stars Lovely Choubey and Rupa Tirkey, part of the history-scripting Indian team that won women’s fours event gold in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, took the spotlight on Wednesday as they helped Jharkhand to top podium finish at the National Games in Dehradun.
IMAGE: CWG gold medalists Lovely Choubey and Rupa Tirkey shone at the National Games on Wednesday. Photographs: Department of Sports, Government of Uttrakhand/X
Jharkhand beat West Bengal 18-8 in the women’s fours final on the fifth day of lawn bowls competition.
The other two members of Jharkhand were Reshma Kumari and Kavita Kumari.
The silver-winning West Bengal were represented by Manisha Srivastava, Renu Mohta, Reema Pawa and Kinjal Shah.
On August 2, 2022, the Indian women’s lawn bowls team of Lovely Choubey (lead), Pinki (second), Nayanmoni Saikia (third) and Rupa Tirkey (skip) had created history by winning India’s first medal — a gold — in the Commonwealth Games during the Birmingham CWG.
The unheralded quartet had beaten South Africa 17-10 in the women’s fours final, pulling the sport from obscurity to limelight with the inspiring show.
Lovely was a constable with Jharkhand Police at that time while Rupa, who too is from Ranchi, worked in the sports department.
Jharkhand ran away with three gold in lawn bowls on Wednesday. The men’s pair of Jharkhand comprising Dinesh Kumar and Sunil Bahadur beat the Assam duo of Biswajeet Khound and Biman Nath 25-4 in the final.
The third gold for Jharkhand came when Basanti Kumari beat Suranjana Baruah of Assam 21-20 in the women’s U-25 final.
Delhi won gold in men’s triple event after the trio of Anant Sharma, Apurv Sharma and Abhishek Chugh beat Jharkhand (Alok Lakra, Abhishek Lakra and Prince Mahto) 25-8 in final.
In the women’s single, West Bengal’s Beena Shah beat Jharkhand’s Sarita Tirkey 21-8 in the final to win the gold.
In the men’s U-25 final, Uttarakhand’s Utkrisht Dwivedi beat Assam’s Bitu Das 21- 20 in the final to win gold.
