PANAJI
Swimmer Shrungi Bandekar clinched Goa's second medal at the 36th National Games in Gujarat with a bronze in the women’s 200m individual medley on Friday.
Shrungi took the medal with a timing of 2:28.64s. Karnataka’s Hashika Ramachandra continued her scintillating form as she won the gold clocking 2:26.23s, her sixth gold medal at the Games, while her statemate Manavi Varma (2:27.13s) won the silver.
Goa's first and the only other medal so far is another bronze won by Abhijit Nimbalkar who finished third in trampoline gymnastics.
Fourteen-year-old Hashika also won gold in the women's 400m freestyle to finish her campaign with a grand six gold and a bronze. Her stunning show pushed the splendid efforts of Olympian Maana Patel, who won her third backstroke gold for Gujarat, each with National Games records to boot, into the background.
Sajan Prakash too asserted his supremacy to take his gold medal tally to five despite the game challenges by Srihari Nataraj and Advait Page at the Sardar Patel Aquatics Complex. Sajan snatched the 400m freestyle from Advait Page (Madhya Pradesh) and the 200m individual medley from Karnataka's S Siva.
At the top of the medal tally, Services remained unchallenged with 41 gold, 31 silver and 27 bronze for a total of 99 medals. Haryana are second with 75 medals, including 29 gold while Maharashtra are the closest to become the first to total 100 at the 2022 Games, with 26 gold among their collection of 99 so far.
