Our Correspondent
Kohima, Nov. 16 (EMN): As the seven-day sporting extravaganza Northeast Olympic Games 2022 drew to a close on Wednesday at Shillong, Manipur defended the championship title, which it won in the 2018 edition, by finishing on top of the chart table with 88 gold, 75 silver and 77 bronze medals.
Assam secured the second place with 79 gold, 61 silver and 63 bronze, while Arunachal Pradesh stood in the third place with 39 gold, 36 silver and 37 bronze, followed by hosts Meghalaya with 36 gold, 35 silver and 78 bronze, a huge leap from the sixth place in 2018 to fourth this year.
Nagaland finished in the fifth place among the eight states with a haul of 79 medals, including 18 gold, 17 silver and 44 bronze medals. The state also finished in the 5th place at the 2018 games but the medal tally was only 42 medals then, which included 6 gold, 9 silver and 27 bronze.
Besides the improvement in medal tally, Neiketoule Belho from the state won best athlete men award for winning the 100m and long jump, and Niansai T was awarded best athlete for Under-20 girls for winning 800m and 1500m in the games.
Nagaland's performance in the athletics contributed the maximum to the total medal tally with 23 medals, followed by 11 medals in archery and 10 each in wrestling and taekwondo, six medals in wushu, five in boxing, four in badminton, three in lawn tennis, two each in karate and table tennis, and one each in judo, basketball and weightlifting.
The Nagaland team, comprising 305 athletes and officials, had participated in 17 of the 18 disciplines (except swimming).
Mizoram finished in the 6th place with 106 medals (16 gold, 30 silver, 60 bronze), followed by Tripura with 50 medals (4 gold, 11 silver, 27 bronze) and Sikkim with 50 medals (3 gold, 16 silver, 31 bronze).
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Wednesday congratulated Team Nagaland for the “best ever performance” in the North East Olympic Games with a record 23 medals in athletics and bringing laurels to the state. He also congratulated Neiketoule Belho and Niansai T who received best athlete awards.
Rio went on to congratulate Meghalaya and the NE Olympic Association for successfully conducting the sporting event besides lauding Chief Minister Conrad Sangma for his exemplary leadership.
“We look forward to welcoming the sports fraternity & youth of the region, to Nagaland, in the next edition”, Rio stated.
Nagaland will host the third edition of the North East Olympic Games but the year is yet to be fixed.
The flag of the NEOG was presented to the Chef de Mission of Nagaland, Neilyalie Angami, as the next hosts of the event.
Earlier, Rio had announced 'special incentives' of INR 50,000, INR 25,000, and INR 10,000 for those securing gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively.
