Khelo India Youth Games 2023: Telangana’s Vritti Agarwal clinches five gold medals, Maharashtra defend overall title

Maharashtra finished their campaign with total of 158 medals

Vritti Agarwal of Telangana signed off with more gold medals at the SDAT Aquatic complex to finish with a total of five even as Maharashtra retained the overall championship trophy with yet another dominant showing in the Khelo India Youth Games 2023 on Wednesday.

With the top spot in the medals standing already assured, swimmers Rishabh Das first clinched the boys 50m freestyle gold and then led the Maharashtra quartet in the 4x100m freestyle final to round-off the state’s gold medal tally.

Maharashtra finished their campaign with a total of 158 medals, including 57 gold, 48 silver and 53 bronze ahead of host Tamil Nadu, who added three gold on the final day, to finish with 38 gold, 21 silver and 39 bronze and registered their best-ever performance in the history of Khelo India Youth Games.

Haryana slipped out of the top-two spots for the first time, finishing third with 35 gold, 22 silver and 46 bronze. Delhi (13G, 18S, 25B) finished ahead of Rajasthan (13G, 17S, 17B) thanks to their superior silver and bronze medal count.

With only football, tennis, table tennis and swimming medals on line on the final day of competition, all eyes were on the action at the SDAT Aquatic complex to see which swimmer would stake claim to be the most successful athlete of the Games.

And Vritti lived up to her own expectations by maintaining an all-win record to claim five gold medals. On Wednesday, she first won the 200m butterfly gold with a time of 2:22.89s, finishing almost four seconds ahead of second placed Rithika Mahesh Bangalore of Karnataka.

Indian Sports Live Coverage on Khel Now

• HS Prannoy climbs a spot to seventh in latest BWF rankings
• Prime Volleyball League season 3 to take place in Chennai from February 15
• Indian Sports Calendar 2024: Events to watch in final week of January
• India to receive “Head of State” security in Pakistan for Davis Cup tie
• Rohan Bopanna becomes oldest Grand Slam champion with Australian Open 2024 title
• Rohan Bopanna, Joshna Chinappa among athletes shortlisted for Padma Shri award, check full list
• List of Indian athletes to have secured qualification for Paris Olympics 2024

The 17-year-old, who represented India in the 2022 Asian Games, then came back to clinch the 1500m freestyle crown with a timing of 17:59.51s. Karnataka’s Aditi Mulay (18:12.77s) and Sri Charani Tumu (18:17.85s) clinched the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Rajasthan’s Yug Chelani also had a chance of finishing with five gold medals but could only finish second behind S Dhanush of Karnataka in the boys’ 200m butterfly event to end with four gold and a silver.

At the SDAT tennis complex, Tamil Nadu’s Rethin Pranav RS and MR Revathi clinched the gold medals comfortably. Pranav’s opponent in the boy’s final Cahir Warik of Maharashtra retired while trailing 6-2, 3-0 while Revathi beat Laxmi Siri Dandu of Telangana 6-1, 6-3 in the girls’ final.

Pranav and Revathi had bagged the boy’s and girls doubles gold medals on Tuesday with their respective partners.

Results:

Football (Final)

Boys: Gold medal match: Meghalaya bt Punjab 2-0Bronze – Jharkhand, Odisha

Swimming

Girls200m butterfly: Gold – Vritti Agarwal (Tel) 2:22.89s; Silver – Rithika Mahesh Bangalore (Kar) 2:26.86s; Bronze – Nirmayee Ambet (Mah) 2:26.91s

50m freestyle: Gold – Alefiya Saleh Dhansura (Mah) 27.07s; Silver – Vihita Lognath (Kar) 27.19s; Bronze – Jahnabi Kashyap (Asm) 27.58s

50m breaststroke: Gold – Preshetha P (TN) 34.91s; Silver – Hiba Chougle (Mah) 34.94s; Bronze – M U Joyshree (TN) 35.15s

1500m freestyle: Gold – Vritti Agarwal (Tel) 17:59.51s; Silver – Aditi Mulay (Kar) 18:12.77s; Bronze – Sri Charani Tumu (Kar) 18:17.85s

Boys200m butterfly: Gold – S Dhanush (Kar) 2:05.69s; Silver – Yug Chelani (Raj) 2:06.25s; Bronze – Deva Neelam (AP) 2:07.61s

50m freestyle: Gold – Rishabh Das (Mah) 24.22s; Silver – Heer Pitroda (Guj) 24.36s; Bronze – Lucky Ali Khan (Raj) 24.38s

50m breaststroke: Gold – Vidith Shankar (Kar) 29.51s; Silver – Rana Pratap (Jha) 29.78s; Bronze – Kevin Jinu (Ker) 29.91s

4×100 freestyle relay: Gold – Maharashtra 3:35.15s; Silver – Karnataka 3:37.06s; Bronze – West Bengal 3:42. 17s

Table Tennis (Finals)

BoysSingles: Gold medal match – Ankur Bhattacharjee (WB) bt Priyanuj Bhattacharya 11-6, 15-13, 11-7, 7-11, 7-11, 11-7Bronze – Sarth Mishra (UP)

Doubles: Gold medal match – Divyansh Srivastava/Sarth Mishra (UP) bt Ankur Bhattacharjee/Bodhisatwa Chaudhary (WB) 11-4, 12-10, 4-11, 7-11, 11-9Bronze – Jash Modi/Neil Mulye (Mah)

Tennis (Finals)

Girls singles: Gold medal match – MR Revathi (TN) bt Laxmi Siri Dandu (Tel) 6-1, 6-3Bronze – Aishwarya Jadhav (Mah), Laxmiprabha Arunkumar (TN)

Boys singles: Gold medal match – Rethin Pranav RS (TN) bt Cahir Warik (Mah) 6-2, 3-0 (retd)Bronze – Hitesh Chauhan (Pun), Debasis Sahoo (Odi)