Trap shooter Neeru Dhanda wins fourth straight Khelo India University Games gold; Jain University stays atop medal tally

 

• Jain University add four swimming golds to overnight tally of eight 

• Chandigarh’s Harsh Saroha upsets Jain’s Srihari Nataraj in men’s 50m butterfly final

• Wrestler Sagar of KN Modi University gives hosts Rajasthan golden cheer

 

Rakesh Thapliyal

Jaipur: Trap shooters Neeru Dhanda and Aditya Bharadwaj helped Guru Nanak Dev University clean sweep all the four shotgun medals in the Khelo India University Games Rajasthan 2025 at the Jagatpur Shooting Range while their cyclists won both the individual road races to take their gold medal tally into double figures.

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

At the end of day’s action, Jain University continued to top the standings with 12 gold, six silver and seven bronze, Guru Nanak Dev University moved to second spot with 10 gold while three gold medals in wrestling helped Lovely Professional University consolidate their third position with eight gold medals.

https://university.kheloindia.gov.in/medal-tally

Neeru, the reigning Asian Shooting Championships gold medallist, clinched her fourth straight individual gold of the Khelo India University Games with a final score of 47 points and also led Guru Nanak Dev University’s complete dominance of the podium as Manisha Keer (39 points) and Nandika Singh (30) bagged the silver and bronze medals, respectively. The trio also won the team gold with a score of 344 points.

Neeru had finished second behind Manisha in the qualifying but raised her levels in the final. “I was determined to win the gold today as this is going to be my last Khelo India University Games. I had won the gold in the last three editions of the University Games and I wanted to end this with another gold medal,” she told SAI Media. Neeru first played in the Khelo India Youth Games back in 2020 when she won a silver medal and has since then dominated the University Games.

Aditya Bharadwaj also led the GNDU’s men’s trap team to a golden double with a score of 45 in the final. Punjabi University’s Jungsher Singh Virk took the silver with a score of 43 while Manav Rachna’s Bhaktiyaar Malik won the bronze medal.

Earlier in the day, cyclist Meenakshi Rohilla added the individual road race gold to her individual time trial triumph and her teammate Akshar Tyagi won the men’s category crown to take Guru Nanak Dev University’s tally to 10 gold.

Second Khelo India University Games champions Jain University continued to top the standings as they added four more swimming gold to their Tuesday’s tally of eight as they won both the 4×100 freestyle relay and Nina Venkatesh (women’s 50m butterfly) and Bhavya Sachdeva (women’s 400m IM) added two more gold medals from the swimming pool.

Chandigarh University’s Harsh Saroha got the better of Olympian Srihari Nataraj in the men’s 50m butterfly, winning the gold with a time of 24.90s. He also clinched the 200m butterfly gold with a time of 2:06.88 seconds and his teammate Ishan Rathi won the 200m backstroke race with a time of 2:13.51s.

At Bharatpur’s Loragarh Indoor Stadium where wrestling competitions are being held, Chitkara University Punjab’s Jaspooran Singh upstaged Delhi University’s Ronak’s for the men’s 125kg freestyle gold.

Hosts Rajasthan too had reasons to rejoice as Sagar from the local Dr KN Modi University in Pakei, bagged gold in men’s 97kg Greco-Roman category, beating Ritik of Guru Kashi University.

Ritik looked out of sorts all through the contest as a leg injury appeared to be plaguing him. Sagar took full advantage of that to win his second KIUG gold after his triumph in the 130kg category in Kohima last year.

RESULTS

BADMINTON (quarterfinals)

Men

Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam bt Shri JJt University Jhunjhunu 3-1; Chitkara University bt Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University 3-2; Panjab University bt Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University 3-1; University of Mumbai bt SRM University 3-2

Women

Chitkara University bt Shri JJT University Jhunjhunu 2-0; lovely Professional University bt Savitribai Phule Pune University 2-0; SRM University bt Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology 2-0; Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak bt Jain University 2-1.

 

CYCLING

Women

Individual Road Race: Gold – Meenakshi Rohilla (GNDU); Silver – Muskan Gupta (Veer Narmad South Gujarat Uni); Bronze – Hemlata Dhakad (Bagalkot Uni)

Men

Individual Road Race: Gold – Akshar Tyagi (GNDU); Silver – Adwaith Sankar SS (Uni of Kerala); Bronze – Chirag Sehgal (LPU)

 

FENCING

Women

FOIL: Gold – Waikhom Sonia Devi (Uni of Manipur); Silver – Naorem Mina Devi (Guru Kashi Uni); Bronze – Anikta Salokhe (GNDU), N V Jenisha N (GNDU)

 

Men

Epee: Gold – Shrivas Mohit (RTU MP); Silver – Sohil Sufyan Waheed (GNDU); Bronze – Shivaansh Kapoor (Uni of Jammu), Paramjeet (GNDU)

Sabre: Gold – Harshit Kohli (Uni of Jammu); Silver – Abhay Shinde (Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada Uni); Bronze – Nikhil Wagh (Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada Uni), Aditya Angal (Bharati Vidyapeeth)

FOOTBALL (Group stage)

Men: Adamas University bt Chatrapati SM University 3-1; Guru Nanak Dev University drew with University of Calcutta 1-1

 

JUDO

Women

63kg: Gold – Preeti (MDU); Silver – Tanvi Barad (SGPU); Bronze – Megha Sharma (CCS); Preeti P (DU)

Men

73kg: Gold – Neeraj Nain (KOU); Silver – Priyanshu Netam (PTRS); Bronze – Amit Kumar (CCS), Vishal Jat (IES)

81kg: Gold – Sachin Kumar Singh (MJPRU); Silver – Nitin (GNDU); Bronze – Manjeet (SJJT), Mukesh Tard (MSGU)

 

RUGBY (Round 2)

Women

Chandigarh University (Mohali) bt Shivaji University 17-5; University of Mumbai bt Punjabi University (Patiala) 69–0; KIIT bt Chaudhary Ranbir Singh University (Jind) 58–0; Lovely Professional University (Phagwara) bt University of Rajasthan 56–0

Men

Chandigarh University (Mohali) bt Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University (Fatehgarh Sahib) 20–0; University of Mumbai bt University of Lucknow 29–0; KIIT bt Shivaji University 38–0; University of Calicut bt Panjab University (Chandigarh) 25–0

 

SHOOTING

Women

Trap: Gold – Neeru (GNDU) 47; Silver – Manisha Keer (GNDU) 39; Bronze –Nandika (GNDU) 30

Trap Team: Gold – Guru Nanak Dev University 344; Silver – Panjab University 298

Men

Trap: Gold – Aditya Bharadwaj (GNDU) 45; Silver – Jungsher Singh Virk (PBI) 43; Bronze — Bhaktiyaar Malik (MRS) 34

Trap Team: Gold — Guru Nanak Dev University 335; Silver – Jamia Milia Islamia 291; Bronze – Swami Vivekanand S University 103

 

SWIMMING

Women

400m IM: Gold – Bhavya Sachdeva (Jain Uni) 5:27.72s; Silver – Kalyani Saxena (Sarvajanik Uni) 5:34.46s; Bronze – A Jedidah (Jain Uni) 5:48.92s

200m backstroke: Gold – Pratyasa Ray (Utkal Uni) 2:29.51s; Silver – Shrungi Bandekar (Jain Uni) 2:30.80s; Bronze – Bhakti Wadkar (SPPU) 2:31.91s

50m Breaststroke: Gold – Rithvika M (KIIT) 34.95s; Silver – Diyanka Dibyajot (KIIT) 35.85s; Bronze –Yashvi Kharat (HSNC Uni) 36.11s

50m Butterfly: Gold – Nina Venkatesh (Jain Uni) 28.40s; Silver – Naisha Shetty (Bengaluru City Uni) 29.40s; Bronze – Nilabjaa Ghosh (KIIT) 29.83s

4×100 Freestyle relay: Gold – Jain University 4:12.50s; Silver – Chandigarh University 4:21.19s; Bronze – Panjab University 4:28.26

Men

1500m freestyle: Gold – Aneesh Gowda (Christ Uni) 16:37.66s; Silver – Shivank Vishwanath (Viseshwarya Tech Uni) 16:38.39; Bronze – Anvesh Singh (Barkatullah Uni) 17:12.36

200m Butterfly: Gold – Harsh Saroha (Chandigarh Uni) 2:06.88s; Silver — Shoan Ganguly (Jain Uni) 2:10.42s; Bronze – Shubhrant Patra (Jain Uni) 2:11.41s

200m backstroke: Gold – Ishan Rathi (Chandigarh Uni) 2:13.51s; Silver – Jatin BB (Viseshwaraya Uni) 2:15.40s; Bronze – Shoan Ganguly (Jain Uni) 2:16.97s

50m Breaststroke: Gold – Vidith Shankar (Reva Uni) 29.28s; Silver — Aaryan Ganesh (Jain Uni) 30.10s; Bronze – Yash Gulhane (Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Uni) 30.49s

50m Butterfly: Gold – Harsh Saroha (Chandigarh Uni) 24.90s; Silver – Srihari Nataraj (Jain Uni) 25.30s; Bronze – Salil Bhagavat (SPPU) 25.95s

4×100 Freestyle relay: Gold – Jain University 3:37.15s; Silver – Lovely Professional University 3:40.84s; Bronze – University of Madras 3:41.19s

 

WEIGHTLIFTING

Women

58kg: Gold – Rima Bhoi (LPU) 197kg; Silver – Rajyashree Biswas (ADU) 195; Bronze – Khushi Kumari (PPU) 183

Men

65kg: Gold – Sanjay Lokhande (SPPU) 244kg

71kg: Gold – RS Tarun Sharma (GKU) 260kg.

 

WRESTLING

Women

Freestyle 50kg: Gold: Sweety (Chandigarh University), Silver: Monika (Dr K N Modi University), Bronze: Anjali (Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Shekhawati University)

Freestyle 55kg: Gold: Kirti (Lovely Professional University), Silver: Gaminee (Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar University, Agra), Bronze: Anjali (Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut)

Freestyle 62kg: Gold: Anjili (Lovely Professional University, (PB); Silver: Kajal (Guru Kashi University); Bronze: Sakshi (Sports University of Haryana)

Men

Freestyle 61kg: Gold: Anuj Kumar Vishnoi (Pacific Academy of Higher Education and Research University), Silver: Sumit (Lovely Professional University), Bronze: Niraj Yadav (Prof. Rajendra Singh (Rajju Bhaiya) University)

Freestyle 74kg: Gold: Sourabh (Lovely Professional University), Silver: Parveen (Desh Bhagat University, Punjab), Bronze: Ravinder Malik (Janardan Rai Nagar Rajasthan Vidyapeeth)

Freestyle 92kg: Gold: Amit Singh (Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit University), Silver: Shivdutt Choudhary (Bhupal Nobles University), Bronze: Shivam (Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University, Aligarh)

Freestyle 125kg: Gold Jaspooran Singh (Chitkara University Punjab):, Silver: Ronak (Delhi University), Bronze: Lakshay (Maharshi Dayanand University)

Greco-Roman 55kg: Gold: Manish (Kurukshetra University, (Haryana)), Silver: Ajay Sahebraov Nimbalkar (Savitribai Phule Pune University, MS), Bronze: Deepak (Major S D Singh University, UP)

Greco-Roman 67kg: Gold: Parmod (Chaudhary Ranbir Singh University), Silver: Satpal Singh (Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Shekhawati University), Bronze: Sandeep Nain (The Maharaja Bhupinder Singh Punjab Sports University)

Greco-Roman 97kg: Gold: Sagar (Dr KN Modi Univesity), Silver: Ritik (Guru Kashi University)

 

About the Khelo India University Games

The Khelo India University Games, organised by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the Sports Authority of India, are the country’s largest university-level multi-sport event. They aim to identify and nurture young sporting talent, offering a national platform to compete and excel. The fifth edition, underway in Rajasthan, continues to build on this legacy by expanding opportunities and elevating standards in university sport.

 

ABOUT KHELO INDIA 

The Khelo India Scheme is the flagship Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports. Khelo India Games are the basic platform to showcase sporting skills and, accordingly, become a platform for talent spotting and providing development pathways for gifted and talented children to achieve excellence. These National-level competitions are being organized in the true spirit of the Olympic Movement by associating various stakeholders like concerned NSFs, SGFI, AIU, etc. Under this programme so far, 20 editions of Khelo India Games have been conducted across the country with 7 editions of Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG), 4 editions of Khelo India University Games, 5 editions of Khelo India Winter Games, and 2 editions of Khelo India Para Games, 1 edition of Khelo India Beach Games, 1 edition of Khelo India Water Sports Festival.