Rich haul for Karnataka shuttlers

Bengaluru: Karnataka shuttlers finished their National Games campaign with a gold, two silver and three bronze medals in Surat on Thursday.
The pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sai Pratheek won the mixed doubles gold. In the title clash, the Karnataka duo was in dominant form, prevailing 21-15, 21-13 against Delhi's Rohan Kapoor and Kanika Kanwal. The fancied Sai Praneeth ended Mithun Manjunath’s fine run in the competition.Praneeth had to work hard for his 21-11, 12-21, 21-16 win over his opponent from Karnataka. Sai Praneeth dominated the opening game, jumping to an 8-2 lead and keeping the momentum going.
However, Mithun came back stronger in the second game but eventually could do nothing but acknowledge that he was outplayed. Mithun kept pace with Sai Praneeth for the most of the third game but the experienced campaigner did enough to quell the challenge of his young opponent.
Women's doubles national champions Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam went down 14-21, 11-21 to the Telangana duo of N Sikki Reddy and Gayatri Gopichand in the final to settle for silver. Earlier, Tanya Hemanth, Raghu M and the men’s doubles pair of Nithin HV and Vaibhaav claimed bronze medals after bowing out in the semifinals.
While Tanya lost to second seed Aakarshi Kashyap 9-21, 15-21 in the women’s singles, Nithin and Vaibhaav were beaten by top seeds Ravikrishna PS and Sankarprasad Udayakumar (Kerala) 17-21, 14-21. Among men, top seed Sai Praneeth beat Raghu 21-12, 21-19. Aakarshi (Chhattisgarh) packed off top seed Malvika Bansod of Maharashtra 21-8, 22-20 for the women’s crown.
SRIHARI, NINA RAISE THE BAR
Srihari Nataraj and Nina Venkatesh led Karnataka's charge in the pool in Rajkot on Thursday. Srihari, the Olympian from Bengaluru, won the 100 metres backstroke event in 55.80 seconds to better Madhu PS's record of 57.62 clocked in the previous edition of the Games in Kerala. Srihari's state-mate Siva S shared the silver with SSCB's Vinayak V with both touching pad in 58.30 seconds. In a tightly contested women's 50m butterfly event, Nina Venkatesh stopped the clock at 28.39 seconds to erase Haryana's Divya Satija's mark of 28.76 seconds set in the heats. While Divya settled for the silver, Karnatka's Tanishi Gupta took the bronze.
Results (Karnataka only): Badminton (All finals): Women’s doubles: N Sikki Reddy/Gayatri Gopichand (Tel) bt Shikha Gautam/Ashwini Bhat (Kar) 21-14, 21-11; Men’s singles: B Sai Praneeth(Tel) bt Mithun Manjunath (Kar) 21-11, 12-21, 21-16;; Mixed doubles: Sai Pratheek/Ashwini Ponnappa (Kar) bt Rohan Kapoor/Kanika Kanwal (Del) 21-15, 21-13.Golf: Men (first round): Tied sixth: Aryan Roopa Anand 72; Women (first round): Leader: Avani Prashant 71; Tied third: Durga Nittur; Tied eighth: Keerthana Rajeev 75.Swimming: Men: 100m backstroke: 1. Srihari Nataraj (55.80 sec; NMR: OR: 57.62), 2. Siva S (58.30; Women: 1500M freestyle: 3. Hashika Ramachandra (18:14.68); 100m backstroke: 2. Ridhima Veerendra Kumar (1:05.51); 50m butterfly: 1. Nina Venkatesh (28.39; NMR; OR: 28.76), 3. Tanishi Gupta (28.63).Water polo: Women: Karnataka bt Manipur 13-2.