Cyclist Meenakshi Rohilla clinches first gold of Games; Jain University dominates swimming events with eight golds

•  Kajol Sargar of Shivaji University wins weightlifting gold in women’s 48kg in Bikaner
• Olympian Srihari Nataraj wins three gold medals on the opening day in swimming
• Jain University leads medal tally on a day when 25 golds were decided, LPU second

Rakesh Thapliyal

Jaipur: Guru Nanak Dev University cyclist Meenakshi Rohilla grabbed the first gold medals of the Khelo India University Games Rajasthan 2025 in the women’s individual time trial while former champions Jain University, thanks to their swimmers led by Olympian Srihari Nataraj, took early lead on the medals table on the opening day at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium complex here on Tuesday.

The fifth edition of KIUG 2025 is being held across seven cities in Rajasthan and will witness 4448 athletes from 222 Universities compete in 23 medal disciplines. The Games are being held under the aegis of the Sports Authority of India in collaboration with the Rajasthan Government, the State Sports Council and is being hosted by Poornima University.

There were a total of 25 gold medals on offer on the opening day and Jain University grabbed the early lead on the medals tally by bagging eight of 11 swimming gold medals. They also grabbed two silvers and four bronze to open up a big lead over Lovely Professional University, who bagged two gold medals in shooting and two in weightlifting.

Guru Nanak Dev University also bagged three gold medals on the opening day with Mitvaben Chaudhari winning the women’s Eppe gold and Aakhri clinching the women’s Saber gold after Meenakshi had opened their account in the morning.

Srihari Natraj leads Jain University’s gold rush

Olympian Srihari Natraj, won two individual gold medals and then led Jain University to men’s 4x200m freestyle relay gold, started his campaign with a gold medal in men’s 100m backstroke with a time of 58.25s and then returned to the pool in a few minutes to dominate the 50m freestyle race, touching the pad first in 23.79s.

The other gold medallists for Jain University included Bhavya Sachdeva (women’s 400m freestyle), Shoan Ganguly (men’s 200m IM), Manikanta L (men’s 200m breaststroke), Nina Venkatesh (50m freestyle) and women’s 4x200m relay.

Earlier, cycling made its debut in the Khelo India University Games program and Meenakshi bagged the first gold medal of the Games.

Meenakshi, a 2022 Asian Championships bronze medallist in Team Pursuit, proved that she was a force even in road racing as she bagged the gold medal here with a well-calculated race strategy. She trains at the Sports Authority of India’s National Centre of Excellence in Patiala.

The 23-year-old was trailing local favourite Pooja Bishnoi of Maharaja Ganga Singh University for the first lap of 10 kms but gathered pace thereafter to finish the 30km Individual Time Trial with a timing of 00:45:31.907, averaging a speed of 39.5 km/hr.

“Today, my strategy was to stay patient, maintain my rhythm and not rush early. The strategy worked exactly as planned,” said Meenakshi, who had been training for the time trials for the last three months, told Media.

Bishnoi took home the silver medal with a time of 00:46:52.003 while Savitribai Phule Pune University’s Apurva Gore won the bronze medal with a time of 00:47:24.933.

Manav Sarda clinched the first gold medal for Maharaja Ganga Singh University in the men’s 40km Individual Time Trial with a time of 00:52:12.947.

Elsewhere, Sakshi Padekar of Lovely Professional University bagged the women’s 10m Air Rifle gold with a final score of 253.2. Disha Dhankhar of Panjab University won the silver with 252 points while R Narmada Nithin of University of Madras won the bronze medal with a total of 230.5 at the Jagatpura Shooting Range.

Sakshi had also topped the qualification round with a total of 633.5 and helped the University also grab the team gold along with Priyanka Das and Sanjeeta Das with a total of 1884 points.

In the weightlifting competition in Bikaner, Kajol Mahadev Sargar of Shivaji University (women’s 48kg), Lovely Professional University’s Golom Tinku (men’s 61kg) and Bornali Borah (women’s 53kg) clinching gold medals at the Indoor Hall of Maharaja Ganga Singh University.

Battling a hip injury for the past two years, Kajol, a former Khelo India Youth Games gold medallist, hoisted a total of 158 kgs (Snatch 73; C&J 85kg) to finish ahead of Rinki Nayak of Berhampur University (149kg), and Chandigarh University’s Rani Nayak (148kg).

In men’s 61kg, Golom’s effort of 256kg (Snatch 112kg; C&J 144kg) was no match to his competitors Khumbheswar Mallik of Chandigarh University (223kg) and Sachin (214kg) of CT University, who finished second and third, respectively on the podium.

Later in the day, Bornali lifted a total of 168kgs (Snatch 73kg; C&J 95kg) to finish atop the podium. She was closely followed by Kiuchangliu Gangmei (167kg) of Manipur University for the silver while Anu N of University of Calicut bagged the bronze with a total effort of 150kgs.

For KIUG 2025 medal tally: https://university.kheloindia.gov.in/medal-tally

RESULTS

BADMINTON (ROUND OF 16):

Men: Panjab University bt Jadavpur University, WB 3-0; Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University bt Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya 3-0; Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University bt Andhra University 3-0; Chitkara University Punjab bt University of Delhi 3-0

CYCLING:

Women:

Individual Time Trial: Gold—Meenakshi (GNDU) 00:45:31.907; Silver – Pooja Bishnoi (MGSU) 00:46:52.003; Bronze: Apurva Gore (SPPU) 00:47:24.933

Men:

Individual Time Trial: Gold – Manav Sarda (MGSU) 00:52:12.947; Silver – Jai Dogra (PU) 00:53:14.315; Gaurang Singh Gaur (LPU) 00:54:32:813

FENCING

Women

Epee: Mitvaben Chaudhari (Guru Nanak Dev Uni); Tanuja (Guru Nanak Dev Uni); Bronze – Yashkeerat Hayer (Panjab Uni), Dnyaneshwari Shinde (Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada Uni)

Saber: Aakhri (Guru Nanak Dev Uni); Silver — Shreya Gupta (Guru Nanak Dev Uni); Bronze – Beni Quebha MR (Punjabi Uni), Laishram Abi Devi (Lovely Professional University)

Men

Foil: Gold – K Abhinash (Guru Kashi Uni); Silver – Harshil Sharma (Guru Nanak Dev Uni); Bronze – Shaker Sayyad (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University), Shubham (Guru Nanak Dev University)

JUDO

Women

48kg: Gold – Jaanvi Yadav (GNDU); Silver – Ganga Thapa (MSU); Bronze – Saniya NB (CUK)

52kg: Mehek Singh (PU); Silver – Anumol A (CUK); Bronze – Manvi (CCS)

Men

60kg: Gold – Anurag Sagar (DAVU); Silver – Om Sameer Hingmire (SRTM); Bronze – Rahul Verma (MSUS)

66kg: Gold – Vinay Kumar (CLDU); Silver – Ayush Mawri (RTU); Bronze – Choudhary Prashant Raj Singh (HMNG)

FOOTBALL (GROUP STAGE)

Women: Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu bt Goa University 1-0; University of Calicut bt Adamas University 5-0

HOCKEY

Women: MD University, Haryana bt Lovely Professional University 2-1; Guru Nanak Dev University bt The Maharaja Bhupinder Singh Sports University, Punjab 6-0

SWIMMING

Women

400m Freestyle: Gold – Bhavya Sachdeva (Jain Uni) 4:38.93s; Silver – Ashmitha Chandra (Jain Uni) 4:42.16s; Bronze – Pratyasa Ray (Utkal Uni) 4:52.47s

200m Breaststroke: Gold – Yashvi Kharat (HSNC Uni) 2:49.75s; Silver – Vasupalli Naga Greeshmini (Jain Uni) 2:50.01s; Bronze – Divyanka Pradhan (KIIT) 2:50.23s

100m Backstroke: Gold – Pratyasa Ray (Utkal Uni) 1:08.14s; Silver – Naisha Shetty (Bengaluru City Uni) 1:08.90s; Bronze – Shrungi Bandekar (Jain Uni) 1:09.54s

50m Freestyle: Gold – Nina Venkatesh (Jain Uni) 27.69; Silver – Yogya Singh (LPU) 28.20s; Bronze – Nilbjaa Ghosh (KIIT) 28.27s

4x200m Freestyle relay: Gold – Jain University 9:33.23s; Silver – Chandigarh University 9:39.12s; Bronze – Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology 9:51.32s

Men

400m Freestyle: Gold – Aneesh S Gowda (Christ Uni) 4:10.27s; Silver – Shivank Vishwanath (Viseshwaraya Tech Uni) 4:15.09s; Bronze – Dhyan Balakrishna (Jain Uni) 4:20.79s

200m IM: Gold – Shoan Ganguly (Jain Uni) 2:12.19s; Silver – Shivank Vishwanath (Viseshwaraya Tech Uni) 2:14.92s; Bronze – Vraj Patel (Gujarat Uni) 2:15.83s

200m Breaststroke: Gold – Manikanta L (Jain Uni) 2:24.87s; Silver – Deepak Patil (Uni of Mumbai) 2:28.86s; Bronze – Keshav Kaushik (Panjab Uni) 2:29.55s

100m Backstroke: Gold – Srihari Natraj (Jain Uni) 58.25s; Silver – Dhyaan M (Reva Uni) 59.70s; Bronze – Xavier D’Souza (Jain Uni) 1:00.87

50m Freestyle: Gold – Srihari Natraj (Jain Uni) 23.79s; Silver – Sahil Pawar (SPPU) 24.35s; Bronze – Xavier D’Souza (Jain Uni) 24.71s

4x200m Freestyle relay:

Gold – Jain University 8:08.49s; Silver – University of Madras 8:12.94s; Bronze – Panjab University 8:21.95

SHOOTING

WOMEN:

10m Air Rifle: Gold – Sakshi Padekar (LPU) 253.2; Silver – Disha Dhankhar (PUC) 252; Bronze – R Narmada Nithin (UM) 230.5

10m Air Rifle team: Gold – Lovely Professional University 1884; Silver – Panjab University 1878; Bronze – Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Solapur University – 1876.2

WEIGHTLIFTING

Women

48kg: Gold – Kajol Sargar (SHU) 158kg; Silver: Rinki Nayak (BR U) 149kg; Bronze: Rani Nayak (CHU) 148kg.

53kg: Gold – Bornali Borah (LPU) 168kg; Silver – Kiuchangliu Gangmei (MNU) 167kg; Bronze – Anu N (UCK) 150kg

Men

60kg: Gold – Golom Tinku (LPU) 256kg; Silver – Kumbheswar Mallik (CHU) 223kg; Bronze – Sachin (CTU) 214kg.