Chitkara University make clean sweep in table tennis

Chitkara University made a clean sweep of the gold medals in table tennis at the Khelo India University Games, with the men’s team completing a hat-trick of titles and the women’s side earning its first top-podium finish here on Thursday.

Chitkara’s men’s team had also won gold in the 2nd KIUG in Bengaluru and retained it in Lucknow last year.

On Thursday, the men’s team defeated Chandigarh University 3-0, while the women defeated SNDT University by an identical margin.

Yashansh Malik started Chitkara’s march with a 14-12, 11-8, 11-7 win over Khelendrajit Yengkhom. Then, Wesley Do Rosariya and Reagan Albuquerque did not break much sweat in getting past their respective opponents to retain the gold medal in the final that lasted 45 minutes.

Chitkara’s ploy of playing Anjali Rohilla against Samruddhi Kulkarni of SNDT University in the women’s team final paid off with the former winning 12-10, 11-6, 11-6 in the second match after Suhana Saini had given it a winning start against Swapnali Narale.

At the shooting range, India player Ashi Chouksey of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) bagged the women’s 50m rifle 3-positions gold with a total of 462.9 points.

Manipal University’s Nischal (462.2) and Ashi’s teammate Sift Kaur Samra (450.4) won the silver and bronze medal respectively.

Ashi, Sift and Vanshika Sahil also bagged the team gold for GNDU with a total of 1756 points.

The two gold medals helped GNDU move to fourth spot in the medals tally with four gold, two silver and a bronze.

Jain University is leading the standings with eight gold, five silver and five bronze, while Chandigarh University is in second position with six gold, seven silver and 10 bronze medals.

Swimmer Bhumi Gupta added a gold medal for Chandigarh University in 200m medley with a timing of 2:32.43sec, while Akash Kaushal added a gold to the University’s tally in weightlifting.

Kaushal clinched gold with a total lift of 297kg (135kg in snatch, 162kg in clean & jerk), while Vishnu Bhoi (287kg) and Prathyush (274kg) bagged the silver and bronze respectively.