Maharashtra steal the thunder with most athletics gold

Hosts Bihar secures wins second gold from track and field competition as Khushi Yadav wins 2000m steeplechase with ease

Khel Today Bureau

Patna: Saket Minj (Jharkhand), Shekh Zeeshan (Uttar Pradesh) and Haryana girls (4 x 400m) 1600m relay squad scripted new meet records on the final day of the Athletics competition in the Khelo India Youth Games 2025 Bihar at the Patliputra Sports Complex here on Wednesday.

Maharashtra finished on top of the heap in athletics competitions with 10 gold one silver and two bronze medals. Haryana picked up the most medals, 19, winning six gold, six silver and seven bronze. Tamil Nadu followed with six gold, six silver and six bronze medals to its credit.

Fourth in the boys 400m, Saket Minj claimed the 200m gold in a time of 21.54 seconds while Shekh Zeeshan’s Triple Jump gold came after he hopped, skipped and jumped over 15.66m and the Haryana girls quartet rewrote the 4x400m meet mark with a time of 3:48.44.

Khushi Yadav won the 2000m Steeplechase gold for Bihar, breaking away from the three other competitors with two laps to go and cruising home comfortably. She won in 9:52.10, drawing satisfaction from breaking the beam inside the 10-minute mark. It was host State’s second gold medal after Alka Singh’s effort in Shot Put in Athletics competition in this edition of Khelo India Youth Games.

Bihar looked set to win the boys 4x400m Relay gold – and that would have been a wonderful way to draw the curtains on the track and field events. However, Raj Sinha, who ran a good second leg and held at least a 10m lead, tripped and fell five meters before he could hand over the baton to Prasant Singh, leading to the team’s disqualification. Tamil Nadu did not look a gift horse in the mouth.

The girls relay race saw all the first podium finishers, Haryana and Tamil Nadu dip home inside the existing meet record time. Vansika, Prachi Sharma, Dipika and Tannu combined to clock 3:48.44 to win gold for Haryana with a measure of comfort. Maharashtra, which finished ahead of Tamil Nadu, was disqualified for a baton exchange outside the zone.

That fetched Edwina Jason a silver medal as the anchor leg runner for Tamil Nadu. It added to her winning a rare 400-800 golden double with a spectacular win in the two-lap race earlier in the evening. She used her faster pace on the home stretch to slip past the leader Janhavi Hirudkar (Maharashtra) a few meters from the finish. Edwina joined team-mate Sadhana Ravi was twin gold winner.

The results

Boys

200m: 1.Saket Minj (Jharkhand) 21.54 seconds (New Meet Record. Old: 21.67, Varun Oori Manohar, Tamil Nadu, Bhopal, 2023); 2. Sayeed Sabeer (Karnataka) 21.60; 3. J Nivedkrishna (Kerala) 21.92.

800m: 1. Harshal Dharmendra Jore (Maharashtra) 1:53.99; 2. Gyan Singh Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 1:54.90; 3. Suraj Singh (Uttarakhand) 1:56.70.

2000m Steeplechase: 1. Anchal Rai (Sikkim) 6:29.85.

Triple Jump: 1. Shekh Zeeshan (Uttar Pradesh) 15.66m (New Meet Record. Old: 15.62, Selva Prabhu, Tamil Nadu, Panchkula, 2022); 2. Binit Oraon (Jharkhand) 14.86; 3. Soham Kumar Biswas (West Bengal) 14.60

Javelin Throw: 1. Himanshu (Haryana) 73.71m; 2. Sumit Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 70.70; 3. Prince Jatiwal (Haryana) 70.05.

4x400m Relay: 1. Tamil Nadu (M Khusshaal, Dhanush, Sivaguna Nithi, Nakul Prabhu) 3:21.37; 2. Maharashtra 3:28.07; 3. Delhi 3:30.75.

Girls

200m: 1. Bhoomika Sanjay Nehate (Maharashtra) 24.51 seconds; 2. Prisha Mishra (Haryana) 24.62; 3. Aarti (Haryana) 24.94.

800m: 1. Edwina Jason (Tamil Nadu) 2:14.43; 2. Nagini (Karnataka) 2:14.81; 3. Shilpa Rakesh Hosamani (Karnataka) 2:14.86.

2000m Steeplechase: 1. Khushi Yadav (Bihar) 9:52.10; 2. Jyoti (Haryana) 10:40.58; 3. L Snigdha (Odisha) 10:45.41.

High Jump: 1. Anchal Patil (Maharashtra) 1.68m; 2. Samapti Ghosh (West Bengal) 1.55; 3. A Brinda (Tamil Nadu) 1.55.

Javelin Throw: 1. Bhavya Pilania (Haryana) 50.71m; 2. Minakshi (Haryana) 48.32; 3. Bhateri (Haryana) 44.24.

4x400m Relay: 1. Haryana (Vansika, Prachi Sharma, Dipika, Tannu) 3:48.44 (New Meet Record. Old: 4:02.76, Maharashtra, Panchkula, 2022); 2. Tamil Nadu 3:51.55; 3. Delhi 4:18.13.