IMAGE: Karnataka swimmer finished his National Games campaign with 10 medals, including 9 gold. Photograph: SAI Media/X
Karnataka’s star swimmers Srihari Nataraj and Dhinidhi Desinghu ended their National Games campaigns with nine gold each as their state picked up a phenomenal 22 yellow metals from the pool at the conclusion of competition in Haldwani on Tuesday.
Desinghu, the 14-year-old swimming sensation, won the women’s 100m freestyle event with a Games record time of 57.34 seconds — bettering her own earlier mark of 57.87 seconds set in the 2023 Goa edition — while Nataraj took the men’s 100m freestyle title with a time of 50.65 seconds.
Desinghu and Nataraj, both Paris Olympians, later teamed up to help Karnataka win the mixed 4x100m medley gold with a time of 4 minutes and 3.91 seconds to end at the same number of gold medals.
Desinghu, however, pipped her senior state-mate in the total number of medals won. She won 11 medals in the Games, having earlier won seven gold (400m freestyle, mixed 4x100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 4x100m freestyle relay and 50m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay), one silver (50m butterfly) and one bronze — (4x100m relay medley).
The 24-year-old Nataraj ended the campaign with 10 medals, having earlier won seven gold — 50m backstroke, mixed 4x100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x100m freestyle relay medley, 4x200m freestyle relay and 100m backstroke — and a silver — 50m freestyle.
Nataraj and Desinghu are tipped to become the best male and female athletes of the Games. Nataraj had won the accolade in the 2023 edition of the Games in Goa with 8 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze to his kitty.
In the 2022 edition in Gujarat, Nataraj was beaten by fellow swimmer Sajan Prakash (who won the accolade in 2015 also) for the honour despite winning eight medals, including two gold.
Karnataka’s fourth gold of the day came from Vidith S Shankar who took the top spot in the men’s 100m breaststroke with a time of 1 minute and 3.97 seconds.
Shankar was also part of the Karnataka team that won the mixed 4x100m medley gold, the fourth member being Naisha Shetty.
The lone event Karnataka did not win a gold on Tuesday was the women’s 100m breaststroke in which Kerala’s Harshitha Jayaram took the top spot with a time of 1 minute and 14.34 seconds.
In total, Karnataka won 37 medals (22 gold, 10 silver, 5 bronze) in an overwhelmingly dominant performance from the pool. Maharashtra was second with 5 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze.
CYCLING
In Shivalik Velodrome in Rudrapur, footballer-turned cyclist David Beckham Elkatohchoongo of Anadaman and Nicobar, whose last name saved him from denying entry in the United Kingdom for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, won gold in the men’s elite sprint.
The 21-year-old Elkatohchoongo clocked a time of 10.691 seconds in two laps to win the gold while Laitonjam Ronaldo Singh (10.724 seconds) of Manipur and another Andaman and Nicobar Islands cyclist Esow Alben (10.826 seconds) took the silver and bronze respectively.
It was a tough fight among the three best cyclists of the country competing at the brand new Shivalik Velodrome here, with Elkatohchoongo emerging on top ultimately.
When Elkatohchoongo landed in the UK for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, the British immigration officers were stumped when he told them his name. They asked him if David Beckham was his real name.
After double checking of his passport, he was allowed entry by the immigration officers.
Elkatohchoongo’s name was given by his father who was a street footballer and a fan of charismatic English football great and former captain David Beckham. His first love was also football but later shifted to cycling which is quite popular in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
His and 22-year-old Ronaldo’s presence in the Indian cycling team for the Hangzhou Asian Games created a lot of buzz in the foreign media because of their names.
Ronaldo was given his name by his father as he was born during the 2002 World Cup which Brazil won with Ronaldinho playing a big role in the triumph.
Ronaldo is a sprint silver medallist at the 2022 Asian Championships.
ARCHERY
In archery competitions, the finalists across all individual events have been decided. In women’s recurve individual event, star archer Deepika Kumari beat Gatha Anandrao Khadake in tie-breakers to make her way to the final. Anshika Kumari will join her in the final after pulling off an upset win over Komalika Bari.
MP, Telangana crowned basketball 3×3 champions
Madhya Pradesh and Telangana won the men’s and women’s basketball 3×3 gold medals after beating Kerala in the finals of both, the men’s and women’s category at the National Games in Dehradun on Tuesday.
Madhya Pradesh won 22-20 in a hard-fought men’s summit clash against Kerala, while Tamil Nadu beat Telangana 21-16 to win the bronze.
In the women’s final, Telangana triumphed 21-11 over Kerala with a commanding performance. Telangana defended their title which they had won in the 2023 National Games in Goa.
Madhya Pradesh took the bronze after beating Tamil Nadu 14-12 in the third-place match.
Earlier in the men’s semi-finals, Madhya Pradesh had secured 18-14 victory over Telangana, while Kerala narrowly edged past Tamil Nadu 16-15.
In the women’s semi-finals, Telangana had defeated Tamil Nadu 18-11 while Kerala won 13-10 victory over Madhya Pradesh.
