A pall of gloom descended on the ongoing National Games after a young Maharashtra netball player lost life apparently in a case of drowning at a nearby beach here on Monday. According to local police, 21-year-old Mayuresh Pawar of Maharashtra fell into the waters while trying to take photos at the Shamkumugham beach here on Monday morning. Though it was initially suspected that the player died of a cardiac arrest, the post mortem report pointed to the possibility of drowning as there was the presence was of water and sand in the youngster's internal organs, police said.
The National Games Secretariat officials here said the player and his fellow team members, who were on their way back after a practice session, dropped by at the beach for sightseeing. "He was on his way back to the room after a practice session at the indoor stadium at Vellayani near here along with his other team members. Though he was rushed to the hospital, doctors declared him dead," a NGS official said.
The body of the player would be taken to his home state by flight tomorrow morning, the official said adding that all cultural programmes scheduled to entertain players at the venues and the Games Village has been cancelled as a mark of respect to the departed soul. later, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President N Ramachandran expressed shock and anguish after Pawar's death cast a pall of gloom over the ongoing National Games.
“The Indian Olympic Association president, Mr. N Ramachandran has expressed shock on the sudden death of Mayurish Pawar, a netball player from Maharashtra participating in the 35th National Games now in progress here,” IOA said in a statement. “A young soul has been robbed away from us. On behalf of the Indian Olympic family, I would like to express our heartfelt sympathies to all of you and pray that you will find courage to overcome this untimely demise of your dear one,” it added.
Records tumble
On the field of play, Commonwealth and Asian Games champion shooter Jitu Rai opened his campaign with two medals while records continued to tumble by a heap in the swimming competition. At close of action on Day 2, Haryana sprung to the top with 15 medals (11 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze), followed by Services (8 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze) and Maharashtra (7 gold, 9 silver and 3 bronze).
Despite the tragedy, the show went on in other events across the state with the swimming pool offering the most exciting action for the second day running. First up was the 1500m men's event in which local favourite Sajan Prakash brought the house down by bagging the gold medal with a new meet record of 15:55.78s. The silver was picked by Sourabh Sangvekar with a timing of 16:07.12s, followed by West Bengal's Sanu Debnath who clocked 16:27.91s.
Another record sank in the 800m women's event when Maharashtra's Akankhsha Vohra clocked 9:15.30s to break the meet record by a second. Karnataka's Malvika V (9:23.95s) bagged the silver, while Maharshtra's Monique Gandhi (9:29.93s) came third. One more record tumbled when Sandeep Sejwal, representing Madhya Pradesh, breached his own mark to clinch the 200m men's breastroke gold with a timing of 2:13.53s. He was followed by the Kerala duo of Anoop Augustine (2:18.11s) and Arun S (2:19.73s).
Maharashtra broke their own meet record in the 4x100m women's medley when the quartet of Monique, Aditi Dhumatkar, Avantika Chavan and Jyotsna Pansare pulled off a timing of 4:04.45s. The shooting range had some high-profile names in action — most prominent being ‘Golden Boy’ Jitu Rai (Services). He lived upto the moniker at least in the 50m pistol team event before settling for a bronze in individual competition. In the team event, Jitu combined with Om Prakash and Gurpal Singh to shoot gold with a score of 1667, way ahead of Punjab (1643) and Haryana (1612).
Jitu was expected to get a golden double but the dynamo, without a doubt India's best shooter internationally in the last one year, was hampered by the excruciating heat, which affected his grip on the pistol. The shooter settled for a bronze after managing a score of 168.1 in the final round. The gold went to Karnataka's PN Prakash (190.1) followed by Punjab's Amanpreet Singh (187.4). “I couldn't get the rhythm going in the individual event. The climate here is not particularly to my liking so I was struggling to grip the gun due to sweating. That affected my performance,” Jitu said.
In the women's 10m air rifle competition, veteran Anjali Bhagwat combined with Ayonika Paul and Pooja Ghatkar to clinch a gold medal for Maharashtra in the team event after the trio totalled 1241. The silver was claimed by Rajasthan with a tally of 1233, while Uttar Pradesh settled for bronze with a score of 1232. There was double delight for Maharashtra in the individual competition where Pooja snatched the gold from teammate Ayonika Paul in a shoot-off after both totalled 208.1 in the regulations shots. Apurvi Chandela added a bronze to Rajasthan's kitty with a score of 187.
In the weightlifting arena in Thrissur, Odisha shone through Minati Das in the 58kg women's category. She lifted 192kg (82+110) to clinch the gold ahead of Haryana's Harjeet Kaur, who lifted 191kg (84+107). The bronze went to Manipur's N Sumanbala Devi. In the men's 62kg category, Chattisgarh's Rustam Narang clinched the gold with a total lift of 260kg (114+146), while Services' Swapnil Ghagre (115+143=258) took the silver.The bronze was picked by Odisha's Susant Sahu, who picked 257kg (114+143) in all. In squash, Sourav Ghosal, representing Tamil Nadu, entered the quarterfinals with a comfortable 11-4, 11-5, 11-7 win over Goa's Yash Fadte. In the women's competition, Joshna Chinappa also made it to the last-eight stage after outplaying Manipur's Rebecca Devi 11-3, 11-0, 11-2.