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Badminton
In the finals of the men’s team event, hosts Kerala took on Haryana. The first rubber went to Kerala with H S Prannoy beating Neeraj Vashist 21-14, 21-12. Neeraj never looked like getting back into the game as Prannoy capitalised on every opportunity with aggressive play throughout.
Ketan Chahal made it 1-1 for Haryana after coming back from a game down to beat Munawar Mohammed 12-21, 21-15, 21-11. Ketan surprised Munawar with fine volleying and taking more risks early on in the second game.
The pair of Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar were too good for Haryana’s Vashist and Surender Rathee as they stomped home 21-4, 21-10 in under an hour. Akshit Mahajan made it 2-2 in the fourth rubber as he took care of Shyam Prasad 21-13, 21-17. It came down to the last rubber to decide the winner. Alwin Francis and Arun Vishnu did not let the loss of first game affect them as they upped the ante in the second and third games against Chahal and Mahajan.
The Kerala duo had excellent reflexes and outlasted their Haryana opponents 17-21, 21-11, 21-17. Kerala won 3-2 to win the gold.
In the women’s team final, Telangana faced off against hosts Kerala. Rituparna Das caused an upset in the first match against Thulasi Chandrika 21-14, 21-18. The pair of Ruthvika Shivani and Sikki Reddy sealed gold by defeating the pair of Aparna Balan and Arathi Sara 21-18, 18-21, 21-13.
Fencing
In the women’s foil final, Manipur’s Roji Devi beat Punjab’s Jasmine 15-12. In the men’s Sabre final, it was Tamilnadu’s Gishondhi who came out on top courtesy a comfortable 15-9 victory over Karan Singh of Rajasthan.
Football
Manipur women’s team won the gold in an exciting final against Odisha. The match went down to the wire after both teams were tied after the end of regulation time. The girls from Manipur handled nerves better when it mattered the most to come out triumphant in the end.
