Jaipur, Nov 25 (NationPress) Cyclist Meenakshi Rohilla from Guru Nanak Dev University secured the inaugural gold medal of the Khelo India University Games Rajasthan 2025 in the women’s individual time trial. Meanwhile, Jain University, driven by their exceptional swimmers led by Olympian Srihari Nataraj, took an early lead on the medals table during the opening day at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium complex here on Tuesday.

The fifth edition of KIUG 2025 is being conducted across seven cities in Rajasthan and features 4448 athletes from 222 universities competing in 23 medal disciplines. The Games are organized under the auspices of the Sports Authority of India in partnership with the Rajasthan Government, the State Sports Council, and are being hosted by Poornima University.

On the opening day, a total of 25 gold medals were available, with Jain University dominating the swimming events by securing eight out of eleven gold medals. They also earned two silvers and four bronzes, establishing a significant advantage over Lovely Professional University, who achieved two golds in shooting and two in weightlifting.

In addition, Guru Nanak Dev University claimed three gold medals on the first day, with Mitvaben Chaudhari winning in the women’s Epee event and Aakhri taking the gold in the women’s Saber, following Meenakshi’s earlier success.

Olympic swimmer Srihari Nataraj clinched two individual golds and led Jain University to victory in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay. He commenced his campaign with a gold in the men’s 100m backstroke, clocking a time of 58.25 seconds, and quickly returned to dominate the 50m freestyle event, finishing in 23.79 seconds.

Other gold medalists from Jain University included Bhavya Sachdeva in the women’s 400m freestyle, Shoan Ganguly in the men’s 200m IM, Manikanta L in the men’s 200m breaststroke, Nina Venkatesh in the 50m freestyle, and the women’s 4x200m relay.

This year marked the debut of cycling in the Khelo India University Games program, with Meenakshi earning the first gold medal of the Games.

At just 23 years old, Meenakshi, a bronze medalist at the 2022 Asian Championships in Team Pursuit, demonstrated her prowess in road racing. She executed a well-planned strategy to secure the gold medal in the 30km Individual Time Trial with a time of 00:45:31.907, averaging a speed of 39.5 km/hr.

“I focused on being patient, maintaining my rhythm, and not pushing too quickly at the start. The strategy worked perfectly,” Meenakshi stated, having trained for the time trials for the past three months, as reported by SAI Media.

Pooja Bishnoi of Maharaja Ganga Singh University earned the silver medal with a time of 00:46:52.003, while Apurva Gore from Savitribai Phule Pune University took home the bronze, clocking 00:47:24.933.

In the men’s 40km Individual Time Trial, Manav Sarda secured the first gold for Maharaja Ganga Singh University with a time of 00:52:12.947.

At the Jagatpura Shooting Range, Sakshi Padekar from Lovely Professional University won the women’s 10m Air Rifle gold with a score of 253.2. Disha Dhankhar from Panjab University took the silver with 252 points, while R Narmada Nithin from the University of Madras secured the bronze with a score of 230.5.

Sakshi also excelled in the qualification round, achieving a total of 633.5, which helped her university win the team gold alongside Priyanka Das and Sanjeeta Das with a total of 1884 points.

In the weightlifting segment held in Bikaner, Kajol Mahadev Sargar of Shivaji University (women’s 48kg), Golom Tinku from Lovely Professional University (men’s 61kg), and Bornali Borah (women’s 53kg) all secured gold medals at the Indoor Hall of Maharaja Ganga Singh University.

Recovering from a hip injury for two years, Kajol, a former Khelo India Youth Games gold medalist, lifted a total of 158 kgs (Snatch 73; C&J 85kg) to outpace Rinki Nayak of Berhampur University (149kg) and Rani Nayak from Chandigarh University (148kg).

Golom’s256kg (Snatch 112kg; C&J 144kg) was unmatched by competitors Khumbheswar Mallik of Chandigarh University (223kg) and Sachin of CT University (214kg), who finished second and third, respectively.

Bornali lifted a total of 168kgs (Snatch 73kg; C&J 95kg) to secure the top position, closely followed by Kiuchangliu Gangmei (167kg) from Manipur University for silver, while Anu N from University of Calicut took bronze with a total of 150kgs.

For the KIUG 2025 medal tally:

RESULTS

BADMINTON (ROUND OF 16):

Men: Panjab University bt Jadavpur University, WB 3-0; Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University bt Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya 3-0; Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University bt Andhra University 3-0; Chitkara University Punjab bt University of Delhi 3-0

CYCLING:

Women:

Individual Time Trial: Gold—Meenakshi (GNDU) 00:45:31.907; Silver – Pooja Bishnoi (MGSU) 00:46:52.003; Bronze: Apurva Gore (SPPU) 00:47:24.933

Men:

Individual Time Trial: Gold – Manav Sarda (MGSU) 00:52:12.947; Silver – Jai Dogra (PU) 00:53:14.315; Gaurang Singh Gaur (LPU) 00:54:32:813

FENCING

Women

Epee: Mitvaben Chaudhari (Guru Nanak Dev Uni); Tanuja (Guru Nanak Dev Uni); Bronze – Yashkeerat Hayer (Panjab Uni), Dnyaneshwari Shinde (Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada Uni)

Saber: Aakhri (Guru Nanak Dev Uni); Silver -- Shreya Gupta (Guru Nanak Dev Uni); Bronze – Beni Quebha MR (Punjabi Uni), Laishram Abi Devi (Lovely Professional University)

Men

Foil: Gold – K Abhinash (Guru Kashi Uni); Silver – Harshil Sharma (Guru Nanak Dev Uni); Bronze – Shaker Sayyad (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University), Shubham (Guru Nanak Dev University)

JUDO

Women

48kg: Gold – Jaanvi Yadav (GNDU); Silver – Ganga Thapa (MSU); Bronze – Saniya NB (CUK)

52kg: Mehek Singh (PU); Silver – Anumol A (CUK); Bronze – Manvi (CCS)

Men

60kg: Gold – Anurag Sagar (DAVU); Silver – Om Sameer Hingmire (SRTM); Bronze – Rahul Verma (MSUS)

66kg: Gold – Vinay Kumar (CLDU); Silver – Ayush Mawri (RTU); Bronze – Choudhary Prashant Raj Singh (HMNG)

FOOTBALL (GROUP STAGE)

Women: Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu bt Goa University 1-0; University of Calicut bt Adamas University 5-0

HOCKEY

Women: MD University, Haryana bt Lovely Professional University 2-1; Guru Nanak Dev University bt The Maharaja Bhupinder Singh Sports University, Punjab 6-0

SWIMMING

Women

400m Freestyle: Gold – Bhavya Sachdeva (Jain Uni) 4:38.93s; Silver – Ashmitha Chandra (Jain Uni) 4:42.16s; Bronze – Pratyasa Ray (Utkal Uni) 4:52.47s

200m Breaststroke: Gold – Yashvi Kharat (HSNC Uni) 2:49.75s; Silver – Vasupalli Naga Greeshmini (Jain Uni) 2:50.01s; Bronze – Divyanka Pradhan (KIIT) 2:50.23s

100m Backstroke: Gold – Pratyasa Ray (Utkal Uni) 1:08.14s; Silver – Naisha Shetty (Bengaluru City Uni) 1:08.90s; Bronze – Shrungi Bandekar (Jain Uni) 1:09.54s

50m Freestyle: Gold – Nina Venkatesh (Jain Uni) 27.69; Silver – Yogya Singh (LPU) 28.20s; Bronze – Nilbjaa Ghosh (KIIT) 28.27s

4x200m Freestyle relay: Gold – Jain University 9:33.23s; Silver – Chandigarh University 9:39.12s; Bronze – Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology 9:51.32s

Men

400m Freestyle: Gold – Aneesh S Gowda (Christ Uni) 4:10.27s; Silver – Shivank Vishwanath (Viseshwaraya Tech Uni) 4:15.09s; Bronze – Dhyan Balakrishna (Jain Uni) 4:20.79s

200m IM: Gold – Shoan Ganguly (Jain Uni) 2:12.19s; Silver – Shivank Vishwanath (Viseshwaraya Tech Uni) 2:14.92s; Bronze – Vraj Patel (Gujarat Uni) 2:15.83s

200m Breaststroke: Gold – Manikanta L (Jain Uni) 2:24.87s; Silver – Deepak Patil (Uni of Mumbai) 2:28.86s; Bronze – Keshav Kaushik (Panjab Uni) 2:29.55s

100m Backstroke: Gold – Srihari Nataraj (Jain Uni) 58.25s; Silver – Dhyaan M (Reva Uni) 59.70s; Bronze – Xavier D’Souza (Jain Uni) 1:00.87

50m Freestyle: Gold – Srihari Nataraj (Jain Uni) 23.79s; Silver – Sahil Pawar (SPPU) 24.35s; Bronze – Xavier D’Souza (Jain Uni) 24.71s

4x200m Freestyle relay:

Gold – Jain University 8:08.49s; Silver – University of Madras 8:12.94s; Bronze – Panjab University 8:21.95

SHOOTING

WOMEN:

10m Air Rifle: Gold – Sakshi Padekar (LPU) 253.2; Silver – Disha Dhankhar (PUC) 252; Bronze – R Narmada Nithin (UM) 230.5

10m Air Rifle team: Gold – Lovely Professional University 1884; Silver – Panjab University 1878; Bronze – Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Solapur University 1876.2

WEIGHTLIFTING

Women

48kg: Gold – Kajol Sargar (SHU) 158kg; Silver: Rinki Nayak (BR U) 149kg; Bronze: Rani Nayak (CHU) 148kg.

53kg: Gold – Bornali Borah (LPU) 168kg; Silver – Kiuchangliu Gangmei (MNU) 167kg; Bronze – Anu N (UCK) 150kg

Men

60kg: Gold – Golom Tinku (LPU) 256kg; Silver – Kumbheswar Mallik (CHU) 223kg; Bronze – Sachin (CTU) 214kg