Leh: The Khelo India Winter Games 2025 men’s ice-hockey final on Monday will be a repeat of last year’s gold medal-round match. On Sunday, the Indian Army got the better of hosts Ladakh 2-1 while ITBP defeated Himachal Pradesh 3-1 to set a mouth-watering title clash at the NDS Stadium complex.
The penultimate day of the first leg of the Khelo India Winter Games 2025 brought mixed results for hosts Ladakh even as Maharashtra went past Telangana and Karnataka on the medal tally. With a gold, a silver and a bronze from their skaters on Sunday, Maharashtra lead the standings with eight medals (2 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze).
Ladakh skaters started the day on a bright note at the NDS Stadium. In the 1000m short track for women, Skarma Tsultim (2:17.91 sec) and Padma Angmo (2:21.13 sec) did a Ladakh one-two leaving Madhya Pradesh’s Udreka Singh (2:22.74 sec) third. Skarma’s maiden KIWG gold was Ladakh’s second this year.
With a total of four medals (2 gold and 2 silvers), Ladakh are joint second in the medal standings with Tamil Nadu, which won two golds — women’s relay and men’s 500m long track — on Sunday.
Maharashtra skaters won a gold (men’s relay), a silver (women’s relay) and a bronze (men’s 500 long track) on Sunday. Karnataka did not win any medal today but Tamil Nadu won both gold (Avikshit Vijay Viswanath) and silver (Selvakumar Muthukumar) at Gupuks Pond where the men’s 500 long track race was held.
In the afternoon session, the Indian Army became the first team to enter the final of the men’s ice hockey competition. The defending champions warded off a stiff challenge from hosts Ladakh to win a thriller 2-1. In another full house at the NDS Stadium, the Army vs Ladakh was such a fiercely contested encounter. Tempers often ran high as Ladakh enjoyed tremendous home support but the young Army men from the Ladakh Scouts Regimental centre backed their team to the hilt with trademark enthusiasm.
Much to the delight of the home fans, Ladakh opened the scoring in the 13th minute of the first period through Stanzin Lotus. The Army team, which suffered a 3-1 defeat against ITBP in a league match on Saturday, took time to settle down and faced several close calls.
The second period produced no goals but Ladakh let in two soft goals in less than a minute in the third and final period to allow Army take control of the match. Army played better as a team as the goals scored by Sherap Zangmo (32nd minute) and Tsewang Chorol (33rd minute) came off quick assists in the scoring zone.
“We lost in the last match, and realised that we needed to adopt a different strategy. Today, we implemented that strategy against the UT Team, and it worked. We were in great coordination and determined not to repeat the mistakes we made against ITBP,” said Stanzin Phande, the Army captain.
The women’s ice hockey medals will be decided on Monday after the last set of league games. ITBP and Ladakh girls are well on course for the top two spots.
(IANS)
