KIYG 2025: Maharashtra's Sairaj Pardeshi breaks weightlifting record, several meet marks in athletics

Patna, May 12 (IANS) Weightlifters continued to surge to new highs in the Khelo India Youth Games 2025 while athletes were not too far from rewriting old records as action continued in the country's premier multi-discipline competition for youth.

On the ninth day of the seventh edition of the Games in Bihar on Monday, Netaji Subhas Institute (Patiala) trainee Sairaj Pardeshi broke three youth national records en route to winning the 81kg gold in Rajgir, and Haryana’s Tamanna added the 10th youth record to conclude another impressive day.

It was Day 1 of the athletics competition at the Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna, and the competition got off to a roaring start. Four meet records were created, all by boys. Jithin Arjunan (Tamil Nadu) leapt to a new mark in the long jump. Jithin’s 7.65m erased the record of 7.42 m created by Aryan Choudhary of Delhi in Panchkula in 2022.

Hosts Bihar ended the evening with a big smile when Alka Singh won the under-18 shot put gold with a throw of 14.73 metres. It was Bihar’s fourth gold in the Khelo India Youth Games, and Alka’s effort lifted Bihar to the 13th position in the medal standings. They were 15th overnight.

Uttar Pradesh’s Kadir Khan set a meet record in the under-18 400m boys’ heats. Khan clocked 47.67 seconds to erase the meet record held by Kerala’s Abdul Razzak (48.34 sec) set in the Pune Games in 2019. Two more records were to follow in the long evening programme. New meet records were set in boys’ discus throw (Hansraj Dhayal of Rajasthan 63.18 metres) and boys' 110m hurdles (Saif Farooq Chafei of Maharashtra, 13.48 seconds).

Weightlifters stole the headlines at the Khelo India Youth Games 2025. Monday was the third day of the weightlifting competition, and someone stood up each day and made this event memorable.

Maharashtra’s Pardeshi was special. In the 81 kg category, he broke records in snatch (140 kg), clean and jerk (172 kg), and total lift (312 kg), leaving Andhra Pradesh’s M. Tarun (287 kgs) and Uttar Pradesh’s Aayush Rana (264 kg) in his wake.

At the time of writing, five of Maharashtra’s 35 gold medals have come from weightlifting. The swimmers (seven) and archers (six), of course, have contributed the most so far. Karnataka and Rajasthan occupy the No. 2 and No. 3 positions on the medal tally, with Haryana fourth.

Kerala were the biggest movers on the medal table on Monday. From 11th overnight to sixth, the southern state flexed its muscle in the kalarippayattu competition where states like Chhattisgarh and Jammu & Kashmir have made an impression. On Monday, Kerala won all three kalarippayattu golds on offer for a total of four so far. Overall, Kerala have eight golds, one less than Madhya Pradesh at fifth.

Elsewhere, Jammu and Kashmir won their first Khelo India Youth Games kalarippayattu medal since their gold in 2021. Nitin Kumar won the bronze in the boys’ chuvadukal individual event to break the dry spell for the northern state. In KIYG 2025 Bihar, this was J&K’s second medal after the historic boys’ volleyball gold at the Patliputra Sports Complex in the first week of the Games.

“I am really happy. I have practised very hard for this, four to five hours every day. Coach Danish has also worked very hard with me. I am glad that it has paid off,” Nitin told SAI Media after his bronze at Gaya's IIM Campus on Monday.

--IANS

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