KIYG 2025: Maharashtra steals the thunder with most athletics gold; Bihar's Khushi Yadav bags 2000m steeplechase

Patna (Bihar), May 14 (IANS) Saket Minj of Jharkhand, Shekh Zeeshan of Uttar Pradesh and the Haryana girls 4x400m relay squad scripted new meet records on the final day of athletics competitions in the Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) 2025 at the Patliputra Sports Complex here on Wednesday.

Maharashtra finished on top of the heap in athletics competitions with 10 gold, one silver, and two bronze medals. Haryana picked up the most medals, 19, winning six gold, six silver, and seven bronze. Tamil Nadu followed with six gold, six silver, and six bronze medals to its credit.

Fourth in the boys' 400m, Saket Minj claimed the 200m gold in a time of 21.54 seconds, while Shekh Zeeshan’s Triple Jump gold came after he hopped, skipped, and jumped over 15.66m, and the Haryana girls' quartet rewrote the 4x400m meet mark with a time of 3:48.44.

Khushi Yadav won the 2000m Steeplechase gold for Bihar, breaking away from the three other competitors with two laps to go and cruising home comfortably. She won in 9:52.10, drawing satisfaction from breaking the beam inside the 10-minute mark. It was the host state’s second gold medal after Alka Singh’s effort in the Shot Put in athletics competition in this edition of Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG).

Bihar looked set to win the boys' 4x400m Relay gold, and that would have been a wonderful way to draw the curtains on the track and field events. However, Raj Sinha, who ran a good second leg and held at least a 10m lead, tripped and fell five meters before he could hand over the baton to Prasant Singh, leading to the team’s disqualification. Tamil Nadu did not look at a gift horse in the mouth.

The girls' relay race saw all the first podium finishers, Haryana and Tamil Nadu, dip home inside the existing meet record time. Vansika, Prachi Sharma, Dipika, and Tannu combined to clock 3:48.44 to win gold for Haryana with a measure of comfort. Maharashtra, which finished ahead of Tamil Nadu, was disqualified for a baton exchange outside the zone.

That fetched Edwina Jason a silver medal as the anchor leg runner for Tamil Nadu. It added to her winning a rare 400-800 golden double with a spectacular win in the two-lap race earlier in the evening. She used her faster pace on the home stretch to slip past the leader, Janhavi Hirudkar (Maharashtra), a few meters from the finish. Edwina joined teammate Sadhana Ravi as a twin gold winner.

--IANS

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