SPO KHELO WRAP

Hosts Maharashtra marched ahead of

the rest as they took their gold tally to 32 while Delhi,

despite the efforts of their judokas and swimmers, were left

eight behind at the end of Friday as the Khelo India Youth

Games went into the first weekend.

Maharashtra are close to a century with 32 gold, 24

silver and 35 bronze medals -- total of 91, while Delhi with

24 gold, 17 silver and 20 bronze are second.

Lying in the third spot is Haryana with 18 gold, 20

silver and 26 bronze medals, a media release issued here said.

Hosts Maharashtra bagged seven gold from athletics,

three each from swimming and wrestling besides two each from

judo and weightlifting.

Delhi had a fine day at the pool with four gold and

another three from judoka.

In shooting, there was a big upset, as Telanganas

Dhanush Srikant upstaged two-time Junior World Cup bronze

medallist Punjabs Arjun Babuta in the mens under-21 10m air

rifle final.

Even though Maharashtra and Delhi were bagging medals

in the race to the top, Balakumar Nithin (Tamil Nadu) set the

KIYG track alight with a personal best-equalling 100m dash in

the boys Under-21 category.

Meanwhile, Delhi girl Prachi Tokas

surprisedfavourite Khushi Dineshof Karnataka in the girls

U-17 Freestyle event, to win her second successive

goldasDelhi swimmersdominated the pool.

Wrestling powerhouse Haryana continued their

domination on the third day of the Games.

Manipur maintained their reputation in weightlifting

picking two gold, but hosts Maharashtra picked as many to give

them a strong competition.