National Games 2022: Sambo Lapung, Siva Subramaniam Shatter National Records En Route Gold Medals

Pole-vaulter Siva Subramaniam and weightlifter Sambo Lapung shattered national records on way to winning their respective gold medals at the ongoing National Games 2022 on Monday. (More Sports News)

While Siva from Services soared over 5.31m to break his own national record set four years ago, Sambo, representing Arunachal Pradesh, lifted 198kg to break the Clean and Jerk national mark in 96kg men's weightlifting.

Egged on by a seizable crowd at the IIT Gandhinagar, Siva Subramaniam first broke the National Games record, set at 5.10m by Vijay Pal Singh back in 1987, by clearing 5.11m. He then soared over 5.21m and asked for the bar to be raised at 5.31m, with an eye on the national record. He failed on the first try but cleared it the next time.

Arunachal Pradesh’s weightlifting star Lapung broke clean and jerk national record in the 96kg class, lifting 198kg on his way to gold at the Mahatma Mandir Complex here.

Lapung had missed his date with the record in the National Championships in Bhubaneswar earlier this year when the judges ruled his attempt as a No-Lift. But on Monday, there was no stopping him from regaining the national record from Vikas Thakur (Services).

Services’ Jagdish settled for silver with a total of 331kg, 15kg less than Lapung. In swimming, SP Likhit earned two gold medals for Services at the Sardar Patel Aquatics Complex in Rajkot. He first won the 200m Breaststroke gold and then swam a leg in the Services 4x100m Medley Relay triumph.

Hrutika Shriram (Maharashtra) claimed her ninth gold medal in the National Games, her first in this edition, when she expectedly won the women's 3m Springboard Diving contest. Notching up a tally of 179.15 points, she promptly dedicated the gold to her coach-husband and two-year-old son.

Kirpal Singh (Punjab) also set a new National Games record en route to his Discus Throw gold. His 59.32m broke a 25-year-old mark set at 58.56 by Shakti Singh. Gagandeep Singh and Prashant Malik (both Services) took the silver and bronze medals.

The Services men's rowing team took home all seven gold medals at the course laid on the Sabarmati river front. They added three on Monday through the formidable Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh (Lightweight Double Sculls), the Quadruple Sculls and Coxed Eight teams.

The women's events saw Madhya Pradesh's Vindhya Sankath and Rukmani both climb the podium twice with victories in Lightweight Double Sculls and Quadruple Sculls. Their teammate Khushpreet Kaur also picked up her second gold in the Quads, having won the Single Sculls on Sunday.

The stellar show by their athletes meant Services continued to dominate the medals tally with 32 gold, 18 silver and as many bronze for a total of 68 medals.

In shooting, Punjab's Sift Kaur Kamra bagged the women's 50m Rifle 3 positions crown beating Odisha's Shriyanka Sarangi. Sift took a 6-0 lead but Shriyanka fought back with some high 10s to make it 15-15 in a race to 16 points.

Both shot a lowly 9.8 in the 16th series before Sift claimed gold with a 10.1 against Shriyanka’s 9.8.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh men and Telangana women became the inaugural winners of the 3x3 Basketball gold medals after scoring victories over Tamil Nadu 21-18 and Kerala 17-13 respectively in the finals in Bhavnagar.

In badminton, Telangana's joy doubled when their star shuttlers claimed the mixed team gold with a 3-0 victory over Kerala in Surat.

The husband-wife pair of Sumeet Reddy and N Sikki Reddy put the team in the lead before former world championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth rallied from a game down to beat the redoubtable HS Prannoy.  Samia Farooqi then made quick work of Gowrikrishna to seal the gold.

In the men's Recurve Archery semifinals, Atanu Das (West Bengal) blanked Tarundeep Rai (Services) 6-0. Tarundeep had beaten Jharkhand's Jayanta Talukdar, who had topped the qualification, in a match that could have drained him emotionally.  Atanu Das will meet Gurucharan Besra (Services) in the final.

In women's hockey, Haryana captain Rani Ramphal scored a hat-trick to hand Odisha a 4-0 defeat. It was Haryana's second win in Group A at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in Rajkot. They are now assured of a place in the last four.

In another match, Uttar Pradesh bounced back from their opening loss to score a 6-0 win over hosts Gujarat. In Group B, Karnataka came from behind to tie with Jharkhand 3-3, while Punjab prevailed over Madhya Pradesh 2-1 for their second win.

In a men's Pool A Match, Haryana trounced West Bengal 7-0 with Abhishek recording a hat-trick.