Diu, Jan 10 (NationPress) Karnataka’s Ashimita Chandra and Dhrupad Ramakrishna earned the gold medals in the women’s and men’s 5km open water swimming events, propelling the state to the top of the medal table at the Khelo India Beach Games 2026 held at Ghoghla Beach in Diu on Saturday.

This second edition of the Khelo India Beach Games saw participation from over 1100 athletes across eight sports, including volleyball, soccer, sepaktakraw, kabaddi, pencak silat, open water swimming, mallakhamb, and tug-of-war. Among these, the first six were medal events, with a total of 32 gold medals awarded. Athletes from 30 states and Union territories competed.

The top three states – Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Manipur – all secured three gold and two silver medals each, but the overall rankings for KIBG 2026 were ultimately determined by the count of bronze medals.

Karnataka led the medal tally with three golds, all in open water swimming, along with two silvers and six bronzes, securing the overall championship in this year’s KIBG. Tamil Nadu claimed second place with three golds, two silvers, and three bronzes, while last year’s champions, Manipur, took third with three golds, two silvers, and two bronzes.

Madhya Pradesh came in fourth, primarily due to their success in pencak silat, which offered the highest number of gold medals (16) in KIBG 2026. Their total medal count included three golds, one silver, and one bronze, all from this Indonesian martial arts discipline.

The hosts, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, finished sixth with two golds, two silvers, and four bronzes, trailing behind Haryana, which concluded the games with two golds, four silvers, and two bronzes. Other states, including Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Nagaland, and Rajasthan, each secured two gold medals, rounding out the top-10 in the medal standings.

Before the final day’s events at Ghoghla Beach, Manipur was optimistic about defending their overall title, with both their men's and women's beach sepaktakraw teams in contention for gold in the Trio category.

The women’s team succeeded, defeating West Bengal 2-0, while Tamil Nadu surged ahead into second place by winning the men’s Trio final 2-1.

Ashimita Chandra added to her accolades by winning the women’s 5km Open Water Swimming gold, complementing the 10km title she claimed on Friday. In the 5km event, Ashimita recorded a time of 1:35:11, finishing ahead of Diksha Yadav from Maharashtra (1:35:53), with Karnataka’s Aasra Sudhir taking bronze in 1:39:14.

In the men’s 5km race, Karnataka’s Dhrupad Ramakrishna edged out 10km champion Anurag Singh of Uttar Pradesh by five seconds, claiming Karnataka’s third gold with a time of 1:21:33. Prashans HM also contributed to the medal tally with a bronze at 1:24:34.