Manipur add 10 gold, overtake Nagaland to grab top spot
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, March 22 2024:
The state athletes in boxing, archery and taekwondo maintained Manipur's outstanding performance at the 3rd North East Games 2024 by racking up 10 more gold medals on the fifth day of the eight-state gala sporting event.
With fifth day's results, Manipur surpassed Nagaland to take the top spot in the medal tally (updated at 6.30 pm), winning 32 gold, 22 silver and 24 bronze medals.
The hosts dropped to second place with 31 gold, 22 silver and 28 bronze medals, followed by Assam (29 gold, 33 silver, 32 bronze), Mizoram (7 gold, 7 silver, 8 bronze), Arunachal Pradesh (3 gold, 8 silver, 17 bronze), Meghalaya (2 gold, 6 silver, 28 bronze, sikkim (2 gold, 4 silver, 13 bronze) and Tripura (1 gold, 4 silver, 8 bronze) .
It was a brilliant day for Manipur inside the rings, as the state boxers put on an excellent display to collect five gold courtesy of Chinglemba Singh (men's 51kg), Ph Jackson (54kg), Ph Kingson (57kg), M Chinglemba (63.5kg), and Bindya Naorem (women's 63kg).In addition to the quintet's golden haul, Manipur bagged three silver and seven bronze medals on Day 5 of the Games.
L Rahul (85kg), T Bhumabati (50kg) and Ksh Silky (75kg) each settled for a silver medal, while K Roshan (50kg), N Khambaton (67kg), E Thoicha (48kg), M Rosemery (52kg), Sovi Jajo (60kg), Th Alena (66kg) and T Premi (70kg) took bronze medals.
The state archers, on the other hand, won four gold, four silver and one bronze medals in the day's competition.
They clinched two gold medals in the women's individual events and the other two in the team events.
It was Ksh Malemsana who won the gold medal in the women's compound Olympic event as W Malesori Devi earned the top podium honour in the women's Indian round event.
On the other hand, the quartet of Ksh Malemsana Devi, P Lily Chanu, M Rupan Devi and Th Sanyai Devi grabbed the gold medal in the women's compound team event, while L Shilheiba and L Rojina Devi teamed up to secure the Indian round mixed team gold medal.
In addition, Manipur claimed four silver medals courtesy of P Lily Chanu (compound), L Rojina Devi (India round Olympic), the pair of M Bikram Singh and Ksh Malemsana Devi (compound mixed), and the men's compound team of M Bikram Singh, L Yuhenba Singh, G Robart Sharma & T Welson Meitei.
Meanwhile, the Indian round team of L Shilheiba, M Bikash Singh, K Borish Singh and Th Hillar Singh bagged bronze medal.
In taekwondo, Chungkham Yaikhomba was the lone gold medallist for Manipur.
He beat Boto Chophy Nagaland in the -68kg final match for his yellow metal.
Ayekpam Akash Singh (-58kg) and Saikhom Rohit Singh (-54kg) both finished third to earn two bronze medals for the state.
In tennis, Bushan Haobam and Jennifer Luikham assured Manipur of at least two silver medals after reaching the men's and women's singles finals.
Bushan fought back from a set down to get the better of Assam's Sheikh Iftikar 4-6, 7-5, 10-5 in their semifinal encounter.
Jennifer, on the other hand, defeated Assam's Taniya 6-1, 6-1 to reach the women's singles final.
Both the state men's and women's doubles teams also booked gold-medal matches, following their semifinal triumphs on Friday.