Dehradun: India’s leading high hurdlers, Jyothi Yarraji and Tejas Shirse, both clinched a remarkable hat-trick of gold medals at the National Games Sunday. Alongside them, Asian Games trap champion Prithviraj Tondaiman added another gold to his collection with a stellar performance in Dehradun.
Andhra Pradesh’s Yarraji and Shirse of Maharashtra won their third successive gold medals at the National Games after clocking record times on the second day of athletics competitions here.
Shirse (men’s 110m hurdles) and Yarraji (women’s 100m hurdles), both national record holders in their respective events, had won gold in 2022 and 2023 editions in Gujarat and Goa.
At the trap shooting range in Rudrapur, Tondaiman of Tamil Nadu claimed the gold medal in the men’s trap while Neeru Dhanda of Madhya Pradesh finished on top of podium in the women’s event.
Tondaiman was part of the Indian team that won gold in the men’s trap team event in the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023. The other two members were Darius Kynan Chenai and Zoravar Singh Sandhu.
Services continued to the top of the medal tally as the National Games entered the business end of the competitions.
The 25-year-old Yarraji, the reigning Asian champion and silver medallist at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games clocked 13.10s to better her own National Games record of 13.22 seconds, set in 2023.
Her national record stands at 12.78 seconds, also set in 2023.
The 22-year-old Shirse clocked 13.65 seconds to better his earlier Games record of 13.71 seconds which he had set in the 2023 edition. He had clocked 13.84 seconds while winning the gold in the 2022 edition.
His national record stands at 13.41 seconds which he had set last year.
Shirse and Yarraji have been competing in 60m hurdles in the indoor circuit abroad since last month. Both hold 60m hurdles national records.
Out of the 10 gold medals on offer on the day, Maharashtra and Odisha won two each, while Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Haryana, West Bengal and Karnataka pocketed one each.
Top sprinter Animesh Kujur picked up his second gold of the Games as he anchored Odisha to men’s 4x100m relay gold, adding to the yellow metal he had pocketed in the 100m dash Saturday.
In the men’s 400m, the 18-year-old Bapi Hansda of Odisha won the gold in the absence of the country’s top quarter-milers, clocking a personal best of 46.82 seconds. His earlier best time was 46.90s he had clocked while winning the 400m race during the U-20 Federation Cup National Championships in 2024.
In the women’s corresponding race, 2023 Asian Championships silver medallist Aishwarya Mishra of Maharashtra bettered her Games record to clinch the gold. She clocked 51.12 seconds, bettering the 52.50 seconds she had clocked in 2022.
Another Games record fell when the Odisha men’s 4x100m relay team of Lalu Prasad Bhoi, Animesh Kujur, D Mrutyam Jayram and Amiya Kumar Mallick clocked 39.47 seconds to win the gold. The earlier game record was in the name of Services team which had clocked 39.94s in 2011.
In Rudrapur, Tondaiman shot a score of 42 in the 50-target trap final to finish on top while Rajasthan’s Ali Aman Elahi secured silver with 41. Aryanvansh Tyagi of Uttarakhand took the bronze with 29.
In the women’s category, MP’s Neeru Dhanda clinched the gold medal with a score of 43. Delhi’s Kirti Gupta narrowly missed the top spot, securing silver with 42, while Haryana’s Aashima Ahlawat bagged bronze with 32.
Meanwhile, Haryana continued to dominate in modern pentathlon as its athletes claimed a gold each in the men’s and women’s triathle team events.
In the men’s triathle team event, the Haryana team of Basant Tomar, Shubham and Aman Chahar clocked 51:24.95 to outpace Uttarakhand, who finished in second with 51:27.43, while Goa (54:20.21) earned the bronze.
In the women’s triathle team event, Haryana clocked 18:20.45 to secure the gold, Chhattisgarh (18:49.17) earned the silver and Bihar (18:53.13) took the bronze.
The mixed relay, which brought together male and female athletes racing as a team, saw Maharashtra clinch the gold with a time of 18:20.15, while Haryana secured the silver with 18:49.17 and Goa (18:53.13) took the bronze.
Uttarakhand’s Aditya Negi claimed the gold medal in the men’s triathle individual event with a time of 16:01.31. Haryana secured the silver at 16:24.84 and Maharashtra took home the bronze at 16:34.10.
In the women’s category, Maharashtra’s Shrawani clinched the gold in the triathle individual event with a finishing time of 18:57.27.
Anshika of Haryana took the silver with a time of 19:17.09, while Heena Phogat, also from Haryana, completed the podium with the bronze, clocking 19:38.27.
Modern pentathlon involves athletes competing in swimming, fencing, horse riding (show jumping) and laser run (a combination of running and pistol shooting).
Haryana also clinched two gold medals in netball as their men’s and women’s teams beat hosts Uttarakhand and Rajasthan in the finals respectively.
In the men’s team final, Haryana won a closely-fought match 74-71 over Uttarakhand to win the gold. Himachal Pradesh and Delhi won a bronze each.
In the women’s team final, Haryana beat Rajasthan 57-55 to pocket the gold. Telangana and Uttarakhand won a bronze medal each.
Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender’s goal ring.
PTI
