Gulmarg (J&K): On a day when honours were shared, the Army struck their fourth gold in the Gulmarg leg of the Khelo India Winter Games 2026 to go on top of the medal standings on Tuesday.
Another five medals were decided on Day 2 of KIWG 2026 on Tuesday. The highlight of the day was Nordic skier Kajal Kumari Rai of CRPF winning her second consecutive gold medal of the competition. Ten gold medals have been decided in the Gulmarg leg so far. The Army added one more to their three overnight to tally five golds so far. The Army had won the men’s ice hockey gold in the Ladakh leg of the Khelo India Winter Games 2026.
Haryana continued to occupy the second position in the medal tally with four gold medals, all coming from their skaters in Leh, but Maharashtra is only a gold medal adrift. Kamiyaa Karthikeyan gave Maharashtra its first gold from the ski mountaineering (vertical) competition on Gulmarg’s Kongdoori slopes.
There has been a lot of attention on veteran Aanchal Thakur. The Alpine skier from Himachal Pradesh struck her first gold of KIWG 2026 in the giant slalom race, winning comfortably with a time of 48.984 seconds. Her teammate Tanuja Thakur won silver, but the upcoming skier from Karnataka, Jiah Aryan, once again finished among the medals.
Kajal Kumari continues to win hearts. The grief of losing her father is perhaps propelling the Meghalaya cross-country skier to race to her second straight gold of KIWG 2026. Kajal won the 10 km Nordic gold for women once again, relegating the fancied Bhavani Thekkada Nanjunda of Karnataka to the bronze. The silver went to CRPF’s Hiral.
Army’s star skier Padma Namgail led an Army one-two-three in the men’s version of the 10 km Nordic race at the Gulmarg Golf course. So dominating was the Army team that the first nine positions went to them. Sunny Singh of the Army, who won the Nordic sprint gold on Monday, was the defending champion. He finished sixth.
RESULTS Day 2 (all finals):
ALIPINE GIANT SLALOM (women): 1. Aanchal Thakur (Himachal Pradesh) 48.984 sec 2. Tanuja Thakur (HP) 51.697 secs 3. Jiah Aryan (Karnataka) 53.790 secs.
NORDIC SKI (women – 10 km): 1. Kajal Kumari Rai (CRPF) 32:58.76 secs 2. Hiral (CRPF) 33:14.89 secs 3. Bhavani Thekkada Nanjunda (Karnataka) 33:22.03 secs.
NORDIC SKI (men – 10 kms): 1. Padma Namgail (Army) 23:18.63 secs 2. Aman Kumar (Army) 23:22.24 secs 3. Manjeet (Army) 23:23.94 secs.
SKI MOUNTAINEERING (Men – vertical): 1. Shardul Thaplial (Uttarakhand) 3: 56.45 secs 2. Siddhartha Gadekar (Maharashtra) 4:09.80 secs 3. Santosh Moktan (Army) 4:14.82 secs.
SKI MOUNTAINEERING (Women – vertical): 1. Kamiyaa Karthikeyan (Maharashtra) 05.26.708 secs 2. Natasha Mahar (Himachal Pradesh) 5:53.885 secs 3. Sangeeta Bhatt (Uttarakhand) 6:03.253 secs.
(IANS)
