National marks by Subhash, Romi

The silver went to Tamil Nadu represented by C Yugazendi, T Rharidharan and R Ranjith Kumar. The Maharastra team consisting of Sanket Patil, Swapnil Jadhav and Milind Zodge won the bronze clocking 8:11, 18 sec.The event was only included in the National games at the last moment.

Roma Devi sets new record

Delhi’s Romi Devi set a new National record in both snatch and jerk of the 75 kg category to give Delhi its first gold from weightlifting at the Dr Kamal Indoor Stadium here today.

The powerful lifter from Manipur who represents Delhi, lifted 93kg in snatch and 118 kg in jerk to total 211 kgs.

Sonia Prabha ofPunjab took the silver lifting 92.5 in snatch and 112.5 kg in jerk. The bronze went to L Anita Chanu of Manipur who recorded lifts of 90 kg in snatch and 107.5 kg in jerk.

In the men’s 94 kg category gold went to Sukhjinder Singh of Punjab who lifted 142.5 kg in snatch and 177.5 kg injerk. Umesh Singh of Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) was awarded the silver though he recorded the same lift as Vijay Sharma of Delhi (310 kg total) because of his less body weight.

Nisha creates history Nisha Millet today created history by picking up her tenth gold even as host Manipur is closing in over the leader Kerala in the medal tally.

Kerala has so far 33 gold medals against 30 to Manipur while Delhi is in the third position with 24 so far.

Meanwhile in tennis men’s individual gold went to Tamil Nadu while Maharashtra and Assam moved into the men’s football final shocking Bengal and Goa respectively.

But once again the day belonged to Karanataka’s Nisha Millet who picked up gold in every events sheparticipated so far. She took the gold in the 50 m free style event today. With his latest gold she has surpassed her best performane of nine gold, which she picked up at Banglaore National Games last year.

Meanwhile two more golds were decided in the shooting and both went to the services as they picked up the team gold in the free rifle event as well as the individual gold with T C Pallangappa scoring 1110 points to pick up his third gold medal.

In the Indoor Stadium of the Khuman Lampak Sports Complex, reigning champion Andhra Pradesh men bowed out of the National Games volleyball competition as runners up Punjab beat them 25-20, 25-21, 24-26, 25-18 to move into the semifinals.

However, in the women’s section Andhra Pradesh sailed into the last four stage defeating Karnataka 25-17, 25-22, 18-25, 27-25 to register their second successive victory in group `B’ league tie.

Others to reach the last four stages of volleyball were Kerala and Karnataka in men section. In quarter finals Kerala beat Manipur,both in straight sets.

Gold for Vinod Sridhar

Tamil Nadu top seed Vinod Sridhar took the gold medal in tennis singles defeating an erratic Vasudev Reddy of Andhra Pradesh 7-5, 6-3 at the Officers’ Club, here today. In the play-off for bronze, Mustafa Ghouse of Maharasthra beat Tamil Nadu’s Manoj Mahadevan 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.

Reddy fired more winners than his opponent, but then, he committed more unforced errors also. Perpetually short of patience, the Andhra player tried flashy shots and invariably committed errors. In contrast, Sridhar just concentrated on putting the balls in from the baseline and let Redyy give away the points.

Mustafa Ghouse earned a bronze for Maharashtra by beating Manoj Mahadevan in another match of base-liners. Incidentally, Mahadevan had beaten Ghouse in the team events.

Maharashtra stun Bengal

Underdogs Maharashtra stunned favourites Bengal 3-0 in the first semi-final of the National Games football tournament. Maharashtra will meet Assam who beat Goa 1-0 in thesecond semi-final later in the afternoon.

Bengal lacked cohesion. Maharashtra played with greater purpose and were deserving winners.

Maharashtra’s first goal came in the 10th minute following a flag kick. Sanjaya Dayal’s curving corner was well trapped by Sagar Amin. Goalkeeper Prashant Dora moved to the far post anticipating an attempt there. However, finding an unguarded first post, Amin fired to score the fiirst goal. Eight minutes later another Dayal flag kick fetched Maharashtra their second goal, this time Abdul Abid banging home. The final goal came in the 50th minute through a solo effort from Uday Konar. In the second semi-final, Assam beat Goa through a penalty corner conversion in the 81st minute by Sabir Goswami.

Dingko popularises boxing

Dingko Singh is in Manipur, his home state, but is representing the Services. That had initially irked the folks here. But his popularity has hardly been affected. Every time his name is announced, it draws large cheers. As his bout approaches,the stands are jampacked and the security is at its tightest. Truly, Dingko has made boxing into the most popular sport around here.

Today he entered the final of the bantamweight category amidst huge cheers. For a brief moment everybody forgot that Dingko was representing Services and his `crime" was even forgiven.

Dingko had one of the easiest passages today. His opponent Bir Singh of Haryana faced a flurry of punches in the second round and Dingko packed some lethal left hooks too.