KIYG: Maharashtra retain overall championship, Telangana swimmer Vritti Agarwal finishes with five gold

CHENNAI — Vritti Agarwal of Telangana signed off with more gold medals at the SDAT Aquatic complex to finish with a grand total of five even as Maharashtra retained the overall championship trophy with yet another dominant showing in the 6th Khelo India Youth Games 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 156 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.

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.