Guwahati: Manipuri athletes showed their class and made a splash by bagging seven gold medals on the second day of the 33rd National Games on Saturday.
The northeastern state leads the medal tally after bagging three gold from wushu, a form of Chinese martial arts, three in fencing and one from the women's cycling team trial event.
Delhi and Haryana were tied on the second spot with three gold each, while hosts Assam gave their fans something to cheer for by bagging two gold in wushu. Assam also pulled off a stunning 5-3 victory over men's hockey powerhouse Punjab.
In the men's Chang Quan event of wushu, Manipur's Dewan clinched the gold while Roshan Singh of Delhi bagged the silver at the Ganesh Mandir Indoor Stadium. Nagaland's Bijen won the bronze.
In the women's Chang Quan, Toshibala of Assam won the gold and Thoibi of Gujarat bagged the silver while Madhya Pradesh's Anjali Kostha got the bronze.
Somorjit bagged the gold for Assam in the men's Nan Quan event and Manipur's Hijam clinched the silver. Madhya Pradesh's M.P. Meiti won the bronze.
In the women's category, Manipur bagged both the gold and the silver with Waribam and Sanglakpam emerging first and second respectively. Gujarat's Sushila bagged the bronze.
Manipur snatched the gold and the silver in the women's Taiji Quan event as N. Premita and Chingtham won the first and second places respectively while Uttar Pradesh's Rita won the bronze. In the men's category, Delhi's Sadananda won the gold and Uttar Pradesh's Vijendra clinched the silver. Manipur's Leimapokpam bagged the bronze.
Manipur, which was the first state in the northeast to host the National Games in 1999, won all the three gold medals at stakes in fencing at the Indoor stadium in Tepsia.
Chingsomba Ningomba won men's saber competition, while Shaolin Meitei Atom took top honours in epee and Usharani Maibam claimed the women's foil gold.
The first gold of the Games this year, however, went to Punjab that won the men's 1,500-metre team time trial cycling event at the Rupnath Brahma Velodrome and Pavilion.
Andhra Pradesh won the silver while Assam had something to cheer for as it emerged third to lift the bronze.
In the women's team trial category, Manipur won the gold while Punjab bagged the silver. Assam emerged third to win the silver.
Maharashtra's Veerdhaval Khade and Richa Mishra of Delhi created ripples in the swimming pool by picking up two gold each in the individual category.
Two 10-year-old records were also broken on the opening day of the swimming competition at the Dr Zakir Hussain Acquatics Complex at the Sarusujai Sports Complex.
Khade, 15, picked up gold medals in the 200 meters free style and 100 meters butterfly events.
In the 200m freestyle event, Khade clocked 1:54:18 and set a new games record, demolishing the 1:58:68 set by Karnataka's Abhijit J. in 1997. Karnataka's Rohit Havaldar (1:57:13) and Rehan Poncha (1:59:16) picked up the silver and the bronze respectively.
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Khade clocked 57.99 to clinch the gold in the 100 m butterfly and missed the record set by Bengal's Akbar Ali Mir (57:38) in 2002 in Hyderabad. Poncha picked up his second medal by winning the silver clocking 59.05 and his state-mate Srinand Srinivas bagged the bronze after he finished in 1:00.01.
In the women's section, Mishra swam to glory in 200m freestyle as she finished the race in 02:12:83, to push Karnataka's Pooja Alva (02:15:24) and Maharashtra's Surbhi Tipre (02:16:21) to the silver and the bronze respectively.
She also triumphed in the 100m butterfly that she completed in 01:05:93. The silver went to Maharashtra's Lekha Kamat (01:06:69) and Alva secured the bronze (01:06:71).
The men's 4x100m freestyle relay saw the Karnataka foursome of Aniketh D'Sou, Poncha, Havildar and Sandeep N.A. returned with a timing of 03:39:43, which was an improvement upon the record of 03:41:99 created by Kerala in the 1997 Games.
The women's 4x100m freestyle, the day's concluding event, saw Karnataka take the gold in 04:18:58, while Maharashtra clinched the silver (04:22:61) and Kerala (04:25:37) won the bronze.
Haryana excelled in wrestling, making a clean sweep of three gold medals at stakes in wrestling Saturday. Amit (men's 66 kg), Balraj (men's 55 kg) and Poonam (women's 55 kg) bagged the honours.
In volleyball, Tamil Nadu showed their superiority and thrashed Karnataka 25-11, 25-17 and 25-11 in a Group B league clash at the Karambir Nabin Chandra Bardoloi Indoor Hall while West Bengal trounced Delhi 25-9, 25-12 and 25-16 in a Group A match.
In the men's Group A, Kerala defeated hosts Assam 25-20, 25-18 and 25-20 while Services came from back after dropping the first two sets to beat Karnataka 21-25, 28-30, 25-20, 25-19 and 20-18.
In football, West Bengal defeated first-time qualifiers Haryana 3-0 in a men's Group A match at the picturesque Northeastern Frontier Railway Stadium.
Gouranga Dutta scored a brace while Shankar Sil struck once as West Bengal pocketed three points and started their campaign in style at the surrounded by the hills in Maligaon.
In women's football, West Bengal maintained their domination defeating Kerala 2-0 while Goa edged past Mizoram 1-0.
Delhi started their hockey campaign in style as their men's team defeated Tamil Nadu 2-0 in a Pool B clash at the Maulana Tayabullah Hockey Stadium as Jayanta and A. Soni found the target.
In a Pool A clash, Services beat Maharashtra 2-1 after leading 1-0 at the break. E. Lakra put Services in front in the 22nd minute when he slammed home from his team's second penalty corner. They consolidated their position in the 54th as Jagjit Singh capitalised on another short corner.
While Maharashtra pulled one back through H. Singh who scored via a penalty corner in the 59th minute, the team failed to get the equaliser.
Services converted two of the three short corners they got, while Maharashtra could utilise only one of the three. This proved to be the difference between the two sides.
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