Favourites Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa lived up to their international rankings by beating their State compatriots in the Squash men’s and women’s finals.
Ghosal came from behind after losing the first game to win 3-1 over Harinder Pal Singh. Joshna Chinappa had an expectedly straight-forward win over her opponent Lakshya Ragavendran. Tamil Nadu thus won gold and silver in both categories.
Kerala did just enough to climb above Madhya Pradesh to fourth place on the medals table by winning 3 more gold medals, one each in Diving (Siddarth Pardeshi), Shooting (Elizabeth Susan Koshy) and Rowing (Women’s coxless fours). However, the hosts are 10 gold behind the leader Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) and 9 behind Haryana after 3 days of competition.
The Anti-Doping squad, comprising of Doping Control Officers (DCOs) and officials of National Ant-Doping Agency (NADA), is already in action. 75 is the size of the squad, which has a presence in all seven venue districts. Grouped into small teams, they will shuttle between different venues.
Testing of urine samples is being done as per stipulated norms of NADA. It might take up to 10 days to get the results of a test.
Dr. Perumal is head of the anti-doping team at these Games.
The first National record to be broken at the Games came today in weightlifting when Vikas Thakur of Services rewrote the national record in the 85 Kg Snatch in men's category. He first broke the Games record when he lifted 150 kg, and then ultimately the national record by lifting 153 Kg.
Kerala got its third Gold medal in Swimming, thanks to import Sajan Prakash, but failed to make an impact in sports like Rowing in which the home State was expected to have an edge. It was Services, Manipur and Odisha who won gold at the Punnamada Lake.
Services also got off to a good start in Gymnastics at the Jimmy George Stadium, Trivandrum. Haryana swept the gold medals at wrestling in Kannur, while it was Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh who topped in Swimming.
A tragic event unfolded on Day 2 of the Games when a Netball player from the Maharashtra team died a few hours after the match at Vellayani, Trivandrum.
The tragedy struck when the team was on their return journey to the Games Village and made a stop-over at Shanghumugham beach. The preliminary medical report points to death out of drowning. The body was later taken to Medical College Hospital.
Haryana’s gold raid
Haryana seems to have started their gold medal raid in wrestling. When six final events were held in wrestling on the first day of the Games, Haryana men and women clinched five of them. Jitendar (74 Kg. freestyle), Manoj Kumar (85 Kg. Greco Roman) and Ravinder Singh (66 Kg. Greco Roman) won gold in the men’s category while on the women’s side Ritu Malik (55 Kg. freestyle) and Suman Kundu(69 Kg freestyle) contributed one gold medal each to the state’s gold rush.
Know-it-all is the name of the National Games Information Mobile App now available on Android platform. Using this app cell phone users can easily access schedule of events, results and current medal tally on real-time basis.
The following are the features of the App:
1. Schedule: The detailed schedule of each sports discipline can be seen. The schedule of each sport will be updated as the events progress.
2. Medal Tally: The current medals tally can be viewed….overall, sport-wise and State-wise.
Kerala rolled out a classy Opening ceremony to mark the beginning of the 15-day event. The huge public enthusiasm and the diverse cultural fanfare laid out by the organizers were the hallmarks of the four-hour non-stop programme at the new Trivandrum International stadium.
Arrangements have been completed to webcast the ceremonies and competitions of the National Games, starting with the Opening ceremony today. The Audio-Video feed from DD Sports, who will telecast the Games in its entirety, will be streamed through the official Games website www.kerala2015.com. National Informatics Centre will enable the service.