Maharashtra produced a fine all around performance in athletics, wrestling and swimming with two golds each to edge ahead of Haryana and Karnataka in a tight race for medal honours at the inaugural Khelo India School Games (KISG). All three teams have nine golds each, but Maharashtra had a total of 25 medals as compared to 23 for Haryana and 20 for Karnataka.
Maharashtra had nine gold, seven silver and nine bronze while Haryana have nine gold, six silver and eighth bronze for 23 medals. Karnataka have nine gold, five silver and six bronze for 20 medals.
Delhi with seven gold, Tamil Nadu with four gold and Kerala with three gold followed in that order.
Maharashtra had a good day in most of the medal events on Friday, while Haryana had a great day in athletics and wrestling. Karnataka managed two more swimming gold on Friday.
Uttarakhand's Anu Kumar and Haryana's Pooja became double gold medallists in athletics while Nisar Ahmad of Delhi emerged as the fastest boy of the meet, despite running an all-out 100m twice in a span of 20 minutes.
Delhi sprinter Nisar Ahmad, who had to postpone his training trip to Jamaica in order to compete at the Khelo India School Games, ran the 100m twice in a span of 20 minutes. He was so focused that he did not hear the recall whistle following a false start and he went all out in 10.77 seconds. The race was pushed to 20 minutes later to allow the athletes time to recover.
After dominating the first day at the pool, Karnataka won just two of the nine golds on offer on Friday. The only other state to win two golds was Maharashtra. Fancied Saloni Dalal and Khushi Dinesh picked the gold for Karnataka, while Maharashtra also picked up two.