Pune: Nashik’s Govind Rai and Pune sprinter Pranav Gurav bagged a golden double on the first day of the athletics competition in the Maharashtra State Olympic Games 2023 while Kolhapur topped the standings in freestyle, Greco Roman and women’s wrestling after two days of competition at the Balewadi stadium on Wednesday.
Rai won the shot put (17.59m) and discus throw (48.78m) gold to record his feat. Pranav Gurav, a final year civil engineering student, first emerged as the fastest athlete of the meet by winning the 100m in 10.56 secs in a 1-2-3-4 finish for Pune in the morning session. He later returned to the 4×100 team to the men’s relay gold in 41.59 secs.
Kolhapur also achieved a 1-2-3-4 in the men’s 1,500 m as Satyajit Pujari steamed to victory in 4:05.42 followed by his teammates Indrajeet Farakate and Vishwajeet Lavhate.
The women’s 100m sprint was won by recent Khelo India Youth Games champion and collegian Sudeshna Shivankar (Satara) in 11.92 secs. Mumbai’s Saroj Shetty bagged the silver with a time of 12.13s with Satara’s Chaitrali Gujar claiming the bronze with a time of 12.35sec.
Kolhapur’s Vivek More won the first gold of the meet by taking the men’s 5000 m race in 14:47.80 in a close contest.
Thane district had two winners in Nidhi Singh (women’s 400m) and Aliza Mulla (women’s 100m hurdles) as did Nagpur in Yamini Thakre (women’s 1500m) and Prachi Godbole (women’s 5000m) as well as Mumbai in Rishika Mahagaonkar (long jump) and Sakshi Parmar (women’s javelin).
On the wrestling mat, National Championships bronze medallist Swati Shinde dominated the women’s 53kg category to clinch the gold medal.
In shooting, Olympian Tejaswini Sawant added a second gold to her tally by winning the 50m Rifle 3-position gold. The Kolhapur shooter had also won the 50m prone crown on Tuesday. Veteran Anjali Bhagwat clinched the bronze medal while Thane’s Bhakti Khamkar won the silver medal.
Indian team coach Ronak Pandit of Mumbai Suburb defeated Akash Sardar of Amravati in the gold medal match to clinch the Men’s 10m Air Pistol crown.
In Nagpur, Pune and Greater Mumbai badminton teams registered hard-fought victories to clinch the men’s and women’s team gold medals.
–IANS