Hosts Maharashtra amass 85 gold and a total of 228 medals and take overall Trophy

Pune, January 20: Hosts Maharashtra walked away with the Overall Trophy for the Khelo India Youth Games, as they amassed a mammoth 85 gold, along with 62 silver and 81 bronze for a total of 228 medals.

Their sportspersons and officials received the glittering Trophy from Mr. Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for HRD, Government of India, and Mr. Vinod Tawde, Minister of Sports and Youth Welfare, Maharashtra, amidst loud cheers at the Closing Ceremony held at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Javadekar said the performances of the athletes at the Games had underlined the Prime Minister’s idea of “5 minute aur” for sports and also added that the government was determined to bring in a compulsory one-hour daily period for sports in every school across the country. The idea was greeted with huge cheers and applause.

Mr. Tawde said that he wanted not just five minutes, but 50 minutes and encoruaged all the sportspersons.

Maharashtra finished ahead of Khelo India School Games 2018 champions, Haryana, who were second with 62 gold, 56 silver and 60 bronze for a total of 178 medals, while Delhi were third with 48 gold, 37 silver and 51 bronze for a total of 136 medals.

With sportspersons gathered around at the jam-packed Badminton Hall at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Ms. Neelam Kapur, Director General of the Sports Authority, welcomed the dignitaries, Mr. Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Human Resource Development; Mr. Vinod Tawde, Minister for School Education, Higher and Technical Education, Sports and Youth Welfare, Minority Development, Marathi Bhasha and Culture; Mr. Girish Bapat, State Cabinet Minister, Maharashtra; Ms. Mukta Tilak, Mayor, Pune; Mr. Rahul Bhatnagar, Secretary (Sports), Government of India; Ms. Vandana Krishna, ACS, Government of Maharashtra; Mr. Onkar Singh, Joint Secretary, IOA; Mr. Chaitanya Diwan, Sr. VP, Star Sports and Mr. Sandip Pradhan, DDG, SAI and CEO Khelo India Youth Games.

Ms Kapur pointed out in her vote of thanks that it was the tremendous efforts of the Maharashtra Government and the hundreds of volunteers that had made the Games so successful. “KIYG 2019 had an approximate participation of 10,000 which comprised more than 5,925 athletes, 1,096 support staff, 893 technical officials, 36 chef-de-missions, 1010 volunteers and 1,500 officials.”

“This was almost double in comparison to the approximate 5.500 at the KISG 2018,” she added.

On the final day, 15 gold medals were at stake and of them eight were in archery, where hosts Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana picked two each while Delhi and Punjab got one each.

Haryana asserted themselves in hockey, winning the girls Under-21 final to take their third gold in hockey from four finals, while Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala won gold each in volleyball. Manush Shah of Gujarat emerged the singles champion in Under-21 table tennis, while Saubhi Patwari of West Bengal won the Girls Under-21 singles.