Army defends Khelo India Winter Games team championship

Gulmarg (J&K): Army defended their Khelo India Winter Games (KIWG) team championship title winning nine gold medals overall, eight in the Gulmarg edition. With four golds on the final day of the competition on Wednesday, Himachal Pradesh ended runners-up.On a sunny day here, Army and Himachal won four gold each while hosts Jammu & Kashmir clinched their first gold and veteran skier Bhavani Thekkada Nanjunda of Karnataka, who won a hattrick of gold medals in KIWG 2025, finished with at the top in the Nordic women's sprint across 1.5 kms.Zubaid Ahmad Lone finally brought cheer to J&K by winning the men's giant slalom race in the snowboarding competition. The burly Zubaid warded off a stiff challenge from Army's Vivek Rana. J&K finished with a gold and a silver in KIWG 2026 and a 10th position in the medal standings.While Armyman Mayank Panwar was the slalom man of the Games with a pair of gold medals, Army showed complete domination in the nordic (cross-country) events. In the gruelling 15 km nordic skiing race, Mohammad Ali (34:21.49 secs) led Army 1-2-3 with Padma Namgail (34:36.74 secs) winning silver and Sunny Singh (35:16.83 secs) finishing with a bronze.In KIWG 2026, there were three skiers who finished with double gold medals. CRPF's Kajal Kumari Rai was on Wednesday joined by Panwar and Himachal Pradesh's Preeti Thakur, who topped in both the slalom and giant slalom races in snowboarding.Photo caption: (L to R) Padma Namgail, Mohammad Ali and Sunny Singh after the nordic skiing 15-km event