Tamil Nadu dominate pencak silat, volleyball to lead medal standings at Khelo India Beach Games

Tamil Nadu produced a dominant display in pencak silat and beach volleyball to surge to the top of the medal standings with two gold, two silver and three bronze medals on day four of the Khelo India Beach Games 2026 at Ghoghla Beach here on Thursday.

Tamil Nadu's spikers led the charge, with the women's team clinching gold after defeating Pondicherry, while the men's team settled for silver and bronze medals.

The men's beach volleyball saw a contest between two teams each from Goa and Tamil Nadu. In the final Goa got the better of Tamil Nadu to claim the title.

Tamil Nadu ensured Goa did not sweep the podium by knocking out one Goan pair, which later lost the bronze-medal playoff to another team from the southern state.

The second Goan team eventually won the men's beach volleyball gold with a hard-fought 21-18, 21-13 victory over Tamil Nadu in the final.

In the women's category, Tamil Nadu's Deepika and Pavithra staged a strong comeback, rallying from a set down to beat teammates Swathi and Dharshini 19-21, 21-12, 15-6 in the first semifinal, before overpowering Pondicherry's Revathi and Swetha in the gold-medal match.

The women's second team from TN also won the bronze as volleyball produced one gold, one silver and two bronze for Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu's men's regu team led the charge in pencak silat, winning the gold as they also ended up with men's ganda double silver and a bronze in men's tunggal.

Hosts Dadra and Nagar Haveil and Daman and Diu lie in the second spot with two gold, two silver and two bronze medals, while Manipur occupied the third place (2-1-2).

Haryana women and Delhi men also ended Bihar's hopes of winning a gold medal in sepaktakraw as they registered contrasting victories in their respective finals.

In the women's sepaktakraw final, Haryana came back strong to beat Bihar 2-1 in the contest which lasted an hour and 15 minutes, while Delhi men inflicted a 2-0 defeat on Bihar.

In beach soccer, defending champions Odisha registered a dominating 7-0 win over debutants Himachal Pradesh to reach the women's final.

Srijana Tamang, Satyabati Khadia and Khundongbam Ambalika scored two goals each for the winners.

In the second women's semifinal, Gujarat's rousing start saw them score four goals in the first quarter, and it was enough for them to register a 6-3 win over Arunachal Pradesh.

Skipper Giani Ramching Mara scored one goal each in all the three quarters for the losing side but did not get much support from the others.

The Khelo India Beach Games 2026, organised by the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, is being held under the technical supervision of the Sports Authority of India and national sports federations.

The second edition of Khelo India Beach Games 2026 is witnessing over 1,100 participants compete in eight different sports -- volleyball, soccer, sepaktakraw, kabaddi, pencak silat, Open water swimming, mallakhamb and tug-of-war.

The first six will be medal sports and 32 gold medals are up for grabs.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)