PANAJI
Hosts Goa added a silver medal each in beach football and wushu to take their medals tally to 32 medals in the 37th National Games being held in the state, on Wednesday.
Goa’s beach football team went down to Kerala 5-7 in the summit clash at Colva beach to take the silver while Roshan Karki bagged a silver medal in Men’s Changquan at the Campal Games Village. Karki scored a total of 8.80 points to take the second spot behind Suraj Singh of Services. M Kannan of Tamil Nadu bagged the bronze medal.
Goa now sits in 20th spot in the medal standings with two gold, seven silver and 23 bronze. Neighbours Maharashtra lead the standings with a total of 135 medals, including 55 gold while Services and Haryana take the second and third spots, respectively.
A lot was expected from Goa’s beach football team, which had reached the final with an unbeaten record in the group stage. It was Kerala who started strong with captain Musheer scoring in the second minute. However, a hat-trick from Goa skipper Pedro Gonsalves put the hosts in the driver’s seat.
But if the Goan felt that the gold was in the bag, Kerala had different plans. They fought back through goals from Unais and Umarul Mukhatar and the teams went into the fourth and final quarter tied 5-5. It was here that Kerala upped the tempo and Ali Akbar and Muhseer TKB found the net under pressure to help their team clinch the gold medal.
Lakshadweep bagged the bronze medal, beating Punjab 4-2.
