State emerges champion in martial arts

RANCHI: Martial arts continued to bring the goodies for the hosts on the final day of their competitions at the 34th National Games.
With gold and a bronze in their kitty, Jharkhand actually clinched the women's team championship in taekwondo. They ended up with three gold and three bronze medals from the sport to total 44 points and push Madhya Pradesh, who had two gold, one silver and two bronze, to second place.
The men paled in comparison, managing only a fifth finish with one gold and one bronze.
Success came on Tuesday when Surendra Bhandari won the 63kg title and Darshanjita Bhairali bagged the bronze in 53kg.
The state had won three gold medals previously through Sonam Rajput, Tasin Begum and K Srilakshmi in the 67kg, 49kg and over-73kg categories, respectively.
The team champions also had bronze from Priti Kumari and Shahina Parveen in the first two days.
The day was again big one in wushu, where the state won one silver and two bronze medals to take their tally to two silver and eight bronze in the event. Amashi Barla won silver, losing to Y Shanthoi Devi of Manipur in a tough fight in the 48kg category while Kumari Priyanka got a bronze in women's Nan Gun and Biplaw Jha bagged bronze in men's above 90kg Shanshou.
State coach wushu Pradeep Kumar Singh expressed happiness over the performance of Amashi. "She was fighting against Y Shanthoi Devi, who is an Asian Games medallist," he reminded, adding that the erformance
of the state would improve in the days to come.
Amashi, in turn, gave all credit to the state for grooming players in the right direction and promised to prepare for gold in the next Asian Games.
The day remained gloomy for the state in other events. Having registered a victory in kabaddi on Monday, both men's and women's teams were brought down to earth on Tuesday. Delhi defeated Jharkhand men 49-31, while Karnataka defeated the women 44-21. The hosts failed to win even a single match in volleyball. The men lost against Karnataka while the women lost against Uttar Pradesh in straight sets. Defeat was in store for the men in waterpolo as well, in which Manipur thrashed them 11-1.