Khelo India Youth Games: Hosts Maharashtra finish top with 228 medals

PUNE: The second edition of the Khelo India Youth Games concluded here on Sunday with hopes that the Games will eventually become the multi-sport event Indian age-group athletes need.
Till now, the National Games are the only multi-discipline exposure Indian athletes have been getting. On Sunday, Khelo India CEO Sandeep Pradhan said the Games would serve as the biggest platform for age-group athletes in the country.
"For the U-17 category, it is a big platform for talent identification and development teams. With Khelo India, aspirational value has been created and now, every young athlete aims to participate in the Games. At the same time, I am confident that the U-21 category will help in reducing the dropout rate and it will eventually increase the competition at senior level," Pradhan said. "Khelo India is now an established platform to transform sports at the grassroots level," he added.
Meanwhile, hosts Maharashtra, on Sunday, added six more medals to their already rich tally to finish atop the medals tally.
The hosts won 2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze on the final day to take their tally to 228, while Haryana gathered 178 medals overall to finish second. Delhi took the third spot with 136 medals.
Maharashtra's two gold came from archery, as Sakshi Shitole and Isha Ketan Pawar clinched the U-17 girls recurve and U-21 compound gold respectively at the Army Sports Institute ground.
Haryana too got their share of gold medals from archery as Sachin Gupta and Paras Hooda added U-17 and U-21 recurve medals for the runners-up.
In the last events, Tamil Nadu U-21 girls defeated Kerala 23-25, 11-25, 25-23, 25-18, 15-9 in the volleyball final. Kerala returned the favour by clinching the U-21 boys' title by beating Tamil Nadu 21-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-20.
It was an all-round show by the hosts as they won medals in all of the disciplines, with swimming (42), gymnastics (39), athletics (33) and boxing (23) being the biggest contributors.
Haryana's biggest share came from wrestling (58) and boxing (51).