The quartert of Ajatasatru Sharma, S Albert Raj, Bhumjit Singh and Gyanjit Arambam paddled in unison to K4 Sprint gold in the Canoeing and Kayaking competition on the river Sabarmati enabling Services to further consolidate their position at top of the medal table in the 36th National Games Academy here on Monday. 

Services now 52 gold have 33 silver and 29 bronze for a total of 114 medals. Maharashtra have a total of 122 medals, including 32 gold, while Haryana are third with 31 gold in a total of 98. Maharashtra’s Rupali Sunil Gangawane dished out a clinical performance to claim her second gold medal in Mallakhamb competition at the Sanskardham Sports Academy. The Mumbaikar secured the Women’s Individual All-Around crown to add to Maharashtra’s Women’s Team gold.
 

Rupali Gangawane, the 23-year-old reigning queen of Mallakhambh, scored 17.80 points on the Pole and the Rope to win gold by a 0.50 point margin from her team-mate Janhavi Suresh Jadhav. These successes helped Maharashtra’s rise to second place on the medal tally with 32 gold medals behind Services and ahead of Haryana.
 

There was, however, a massive disappointment for the Maharashtra Men’s Hockey team who were unable to make the most of their pre-match favourites tag against Uttar Pradesh in the semifinals at the Maj. Dhyan Chand Stadium in Rajkot. Maharashtra rallied from three goals down to take the match into the penalty shootout but ran out of luck.

Sumit scored in the 22nd minute to give Uttar Pradesh the lead. Sunil Yadav doubled the tally with a penalty-corner goal in injury time in the second quarter while Manish Yadav made it 3-0 with a penalty corner conversion seven minutes into the third quarter. Maharashtra bounced back through Aniket Gurav (40th and 47th minutes) and Sayyad Niyaz Rahim (55).
 
In the shoot-out, the teams were level 2-2 after four attempts each. Rajkumar Pal and Rahul Kumar Rajbhar put Uttar Pradesh 2-0 ahead before Darshan Gawkar and Yuvraj Walmiki brought Maharashtra back into the contest. Venkatesh Kenche could not beat Uttar Pradesh goalkeeper Prashant Kumar while skipper Lalit Kumar Upadhyay found the winner.
 
Back on the Sabarmati, it was heartening to watch the experienced Rajina Kiro hold her own in the Women’s K1 500m Sprint against Kaushal Nandini Thakur (Chhattisgarh) and Pooja (Haryana).
 
Rahasri Manogar Babu (Tamil Nadu) won the Soft Tennis Women’s Singles gold with an easy win over Aadhya Tiwari (Madhya Pradesh). She then had to put her best foot forward in beating the home State’s Hetvee Chaudhari 1-4, 2-4, 4-1, 4-1, 1-4, 9-7, 7-0 in the semifinals.
 
Late on Sunday, the battle for Mallakhambh Men’s Individual All-Around gold, featuring Maharashtra’s Akshay Taral from Mumbai and Shubhankar from Pune, brought fans in Sanskardham to the edge of their seats. Only 0.15 points separated the two contestants while Chandrashekhar Chauhan (Madhya Pradesh) was a further 0.35 points behind.
 

The results (finals):
Canoeing and Kayaking
Men
K4 1000m Sprint: 1. Ajatasatru Sharma, S Albert Raj, Bhumjit Singh and Gyanjit Arambam (Services) 1:34.495; 2. Vishal Dangi, Akshit Baroi, Himanshu Tandon and Rimson Mairembam (Madhya Pradesh) 1:36.422; 3. Harsh Kumar, Mahendra Singh, Kunal and Ningthoujam Nivash Singh (Telangana) 1:389.168.
Women
C2 500m Sprint: 1. Meghna Pradeep and Akshaya Sunil (Kerala) 2:16.816; 2. Kaveri Dimar and Shivani Verma (Madhya Pradesh) 2:16.896; 2. Rashmita Sahoo and Sachima Kerketta (Odisha) 2:33.506.
K1 500m Sprint: 1. Rajina Kiro (Andaman & Nicobar) 2:08.652; 2. Kaushal Nandini Thakur (Chhattisgarh) 2:09.186; 3. Pooja (Haryana) 2:12.926.
K2 500m Sprint: 1. Fulmani Xaxa and Oinam Bindya Devi (Odisha) 2:07.443; 2. Jyoti and Pooja (Haryana) 2:09.446; 3. Rajina Kiro and Sandhya Kispota (Andaman & Nicobar) 2:10.806.
K4 500m Sprint: 1. Aleena Biju, Sreelakshmi Jayaprakash, Treesa Jacob and G Parvathi (Kerala) 1:56.259; 2. Dipali, Suahma Verma, Dimita Devi and Swati Sahu (Madhya Pradesh) 1:57.859; 3. Fulmani Xaxa, Oinam Bidya Devi, Pukharambam Roji Devi and Shruti Choughule (Odisha) 1:58.932.
 
Football:
Women’s Bronze medal play-off: Tamil Nadu beat Assam 5-1 (Half-time: 3-1).
 
Mallakhambh
Men’s Individual All-Around (Sunday’s result): 1. Akshay Prakash Taral (Maharashtra) 26.85 points; 2. Shubhankar Vinay Khawale (Maharashtra) 26.70; 3. Chandrashekhar Chauhan (Madhya Pradesh) 26.35.
Women’s Team: 1. Maharashtra 88.75 points; 2, Madhya Pradesh 83.10; 3. Chhattisgarh 80.10.
Women’s Individual All-Around: 1. Rupali Sunil Gangawane (Maharashtra) 17.80 points; 2. Janhavi Suresh Jadhav (Maharashtra) 17.30; 3. Sidhi Gupta (Madhya Pradesh) 17.20.
 
Other results
Hockey
Men’s semifinal: Uttar Pradesh beat Maharashtra 3-3 (Half-time 0-2) 3-2 in penalty shoot-out.
 
Soft Tennis
Men’s Singles (semifinals): Jay Meena (Madhya Pradesh) beat Rohit Dhiman (Chandigarh) 5-3, 4-1, 4-2, 4-1; Jitender Mehta (Delhi) beat Aniket Chirag Patel (Gujarat) 4-2, 4-2, 2-4, 4-2, 4-0.
Women’s Singles (Final):  Rahasri Manogar Babu (Tamil Nadu) beat Aadhya Tiwari (Madhya Pradesh) 4-2, 4-2, 4-1, 4-0. Bronze medals: Nikita Bishnoi (Haryana) and Hetvee Chaudhari (Gujarat).