Patna: The sixth day of action in the Khelo India Youth Games 2025 saw the girls’ kho kho team of Odisha steal the spotlight from Maharashtra’s Aidi Hegde, who completed a rich haul of seven medals by bagging two on the last day of competitions in swimming.
Odisha’s well-planned and well-executed victory over fancied Maharashtra in the girls’ final of Kho-kho at the BIPARD Sports Complex in Gaya was the talking point of the Games on Friday. With its boys’ team winning silver, Odisha made its appearance on the medals table.
The Nashik-based swimmer Aditi Satish Hegde, a Khelo India Athlete, enhanced her collection of medals from five last time to seven now, to steal everyone else’s thunder. She has raised the bar high with her show in the BIPAR Swimming Pool in Gaya and could well end up being the most successful athlete in the Games.
Aditi won a bronze in the 1500m Freestyle on Friday despite not being at her best to add to the five gold, including two in relays and a bronze won over the past few weeks. She had won five medals in the Khelo India Youth Games in Chennai last year and came to Gaya with a resolve to showcase improvement.
If it was the Jammu and Kashmir boys volleyball team that took the breath away of the sports fans in the Patliputra Sports Complex late on Thursday, it was the turn of the Odisha girls Kho-kho team to train the spotlight on itself by making light of a deficit at the break to secure a memorable victory.
The 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team combine of Rudra Pratap and Divya Shree ensured host Bihar’s medal tally increased to 14. The duo showed poise and calm under pressure to beat an Uttar Pradesh pair for a bronze at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Ranges in New Delhi.
The KIYG 2025 hosts had a heartbreak on Friday when Bihar girls lost the Sepak Takraw Regu final to Manipur. Bihar now has a gold, five silver and eight bronze medals. With a couple of rugby finals left to be contested on Friday, Bihar can expect to make further progress on the medal tally.
Despite that Kho-kho reversal in the morning, Maharashtra continued its relentless quest to stay on top of the medal table. With a title win for the Kho-kho boys team and the air rifle shooting mixed team and three athletes on the final day of swimming competition at the BIPARD Complex, its haul rose to 23 gold.
The twin gold medals won by Rujula S. (50m Freestyle) and the boys’ 4x100m Freestyle Relay quartet enabled Karnataka to edge ahead of Rajasthan on the charts with 12 gold, 20 silver and six bronze medals at the time of writing. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana complete the top five on the table of honours.
On the last day of the swimming competitions, which ended in a blaze of glory for Karnataka, Haryana’s Arjun Singh not only emerged the fastest swimmer of the meet with a victory in 23.91 seconds but also claimed his second sprint gold. He had won the 50m Backstroke gold earlier in the week.
(IANS)
