Raipur: With just one day of track and field competitions left, second-placed Odisha continued to chase the table toppers with four gold on Day 8 of the Khelo India Tribal Games Wednesday to take their overall tally to 17 gold, 10 silver and 16 bronze medals.
Dayanidhi Munda (men’s 800m), Roshan Khadia (men’s 400m hurdles), Dipa Kisan (women’s high jump) and Dhanmati Xess (women’s javelin throw) clinched gold medals for Odisha on a day when Jharkhand also boosted their third position in the medal’s tally with a gold each in women’s 400m hurdles and 10km race walk. Jharkhand now have a total of 19 medals — nine gold, three silver and seven bronze medals.
Race walker Dasharath Talawar and middle-distance runner Nagini added a gold medal each to table toppers Karnataka’s tally, while Chhattisgarh’s Gajendra Thakur bagged a silver in the men’s 800m. Dasharath led Karnataka’s 1-2 in the men’s 10km race walk with a time of 45:13.85s, with Darshan Bagadi (46:25.90s) finishing second ahead of Gujarat’s Sagarbhai Katara (48:16.09s) at the Kreeda Parisar athletics track in Jagdalpur. Nagini then dominated the women’s 800m race to clinch the gold with a time of 2:13.80s to take Karnataka’s gold medal tally to 21. Karnataka has also bagged eight silver and seven bronze for an aggregate of 36 medals. Chattisgarh’s Gajendra Thakur claimed the men’s 800m silver medal with a timing of 1:53.82s behind Munda, who clocked 1:53.33s. Earlier, Chhattisgarh men’s hockey team clinched the bronze medal by beating neighbouring Madhya Pradesh 14-6.
The two medals took their tally to two gold, eight silver and five bronze and are placed 10th in the overall standings. In football, Chhattisgarh defeated Arunachal Pradesh 3-2 to book their final spot against West Bengal. Captain Akhilesh Kumar Uikey led from the front, scoring a brace for the hosts in the 34th and 66th minutes, with Manoj Kumar Lekam striking another goal in the 75th minute. Arunachal Pradesh were late bloomers and couldn’t catch up with the hosts as Rahul Goju Singpho brought them close to victory, scoring a double in the 81st and 86th minutes.
In the other semifinal, West Bengal trumped Goa 5-2 with Saurav Sabbar (27th minute), Dilip Oraon (36th), Bijay Murmu (42th), Rahul Murmu (45+1) and Chaku Mandi (90+2) finding the net once each.
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