Maharashtra swimmer Palak Joshi bettered her 200-metre backstroke national record en route gold medal during the penultimate day of the ongoing Khelo India Youth Games in Chennai on Tuesday. (More Sports News)
Joshi, who had represented India during the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, was miles ahead, clocking 2:18.59 seconds, setting a timing lower than her senior national mark of 2:18.90 seconds that she had set during last July's National Aquatics championships in Hyderabad.
Sri Nithya Sagi of Telangana won the silver with a timing of 2:25.83 seconds, while Naisha of Karnataka took home the bronze clocking 2:25.83 seconds.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu weightlifter RP Keerthana clinched the girls' 81kg gold by breaking snatch and overall National Youth records.
She lifted a total of 188kgs, including 85kg in snatch and 103kg in clean & jerk, finishing ahead of her state-mate Oviya K (184kg), while Santushti Choudhary of Uttar Pradesh settled for the bronze medal with a total lift of 162kg.
The previous record in snatch (81kg), clean & jerk (104kg) and overall (185kg) were held by Andhra Pradesh's Ch Srilakshmi.
Maharashtra added nine more golds to its account, crossing the 50-mark in golds.
Aditi Gopichand Swami, world champion and 2022 Asian Games bronze medallist, led Maharashtra's charge at the archery venue.
She won the compound girls and mixed team gold, with Pruthviraj Ghadge and Sharvani Shende winning the recurve mixed team final.
Shende also scalped the silver in the girls' recurve category, while Tejal Salve won the silver in compound girls, and Mihir Apar bagged bronze in the boys' compound event.
Maharashtra's kho-kho team lived up to its favourite tag, claiming both the golds, as the boys beat Delhi 40-10 before the girls trounced Odisha 33-24.
Maharashtra's Taarini Suri and Shravani Walekar then raised the state's gold tally to 50 by prevailing over Pragati Parida and Vishakha Toppo of Odisha 21-13 20-22 21-16 in the badminton girls doubles final.
Yuvek Battula and Venkat Lakku of Telangana clinched the mixed team gold in shooting, while Vanshika Tiwari and Udyaman Rathore of Madhya Pradesh took the silver and the pair of Zorawar Bedi and Risham Guron of Punjab bagged the bronze.
