- Gujarat’s star, Elavanil, began the final rather slowly and moved to the top spot after the second series
NE SPORTS BUREAU
GANDHINAGAR, OCT 1
Gujarat’s golden girl and ace shooter Elavenil Valarivan gave the hosts their fourth gold even as several favourites, including Olympic silver medallist weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, path-breaking fencer Bhavani Devi and wrestler Divya Kakaran, lived up to their top billing and pocketed gold medals in their respective events in the 36th National Games here on Friday.
The athletics arena at IIT Gandhinagar, however, was on fire, with as many as nine Gam’s’ records falling during the course of the action-packed day.
Gujarat’s star, Elavanil, began the final rather slowly and moved to the top spot after the second series. The leader board kept changing till the last shot in the fifth series and Elavenil managed to pip Mehuli Ghosh by 0.3 points to set up a gold medal match with top-ranked Tilottama Sen.
In the final, Elavenil took an early 4-0 lead and though Tilottama tried to keep pace with the eventual champion by winning a couple of points at regular intervals but could not avoid a 16-10 loss.
Among the favourites, Bhavani Devi (Tamil Nadu) completed a hat-trick of women’s sabre individual gold medals in the National Games. Having barely slept after flying in from her training base in France and having carried the Tamil Nadu flag in the athletes’ parade on Thursday, she spent a productive day at the Mahatma Mandir, asserting her primacy as India’s best Sabre fencer.
Divya Kakaran (Uttar Pradesh) stopped a Haryana sweep of all six gold medals at stake on the opening of the wrestling competition. She won the women’s 76kg class title, beating Haryana’s Reetika in the quarterfinals and Rohini Satya Shivani (Telangana) and Rani (Himachal Pradesh) with a measure of comfort.
Haryana men and Odisha women claimed the Rugby 7s gold medals respectively with victories over Maharashtra teams. Haryana men played a better second half to sprint away from 7-7 at the break to a 19-7 win. Odisha women, who stunned National Champions Bihar in the semifinals, dominated their title clash, opening up a 15-0 lead in the first half in a 22-0 win.
Haryana scored a golden double in netball, their men’s team defeating Telangana 75-73 in a thriller that went to the wire and their women quelled Punjab’s challenge 53-49.
In the men’s final, Telangana gained the upper hand in the first two quarters and took a slender 28-27 lead. However, Haryana stepped on the pedal in the third quarter and wrested the advantage.
