Diu, Oct 9 (PTI) Defending champions Kerala men and Odisha women registered contrasting victories to retain their soccer gold medals in the Khelo India Beach Games 2026 at the Ghoghla Beach here on Friday.
On the penultimate day of the second edition of KIBG 2026, Madhya Pradesh jumped to the top spot on the medals tally with two gold medals in Pencak Silat.
Sarun Sonwane (men’s 70-75kg) and Mahendra Swami (men’s 85-90kg) won the Tanding weight categories to take the state’s tally to three gold, one silver and one bronze.
Haryana were second with two gold, four silver and two bronze while hosts Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu were third with a tally of two gold, two silver and four bronze.
Beach soccer ========== In a repeat of last edition’s final, Kerala men toyed with an under-prepared Goan defence 8-2 while Odisha women got the better of Gujarat 2-1 in the beach soccer finals.
Umarul Mukthar slammed a hat-trick (1st, 13th and 29th minutes), while Rohith Y (2nd and 9th) and captain Musheer T (15th and 24th) struck a brace each.
The five-a-side beach soccer final is played in three periods of 12 minutes each and Goa managed just one strike (Abel Gurjao, 8th minute) in the first two periods.
They pulled off another consolation goal in the last minute of regulation time through Satish Naik’s solitary attempt from the midfield.
Former India forward Bruno Coutinho, who is the coach of the Goan side, blamed it on their lack of preparation.
“We were confirmed our participation on December 31 and we landed here without any preparation,” Coutinho said.
In the women’s final, Khundongbam Ambalika scored the match winner in the 28th minute for Odisha after both teams were locked 1-1 after the second quarter.
Manisha Naik had given Odisha the lead in the 13th minute but Gujarat had restored parity a minute later thanks to a strike from Bhumisha Dravid.
Open water swimming =============== Uttar Pradesh’s Anurag Singh and Karnataka’s Ashmita Chandra grabbed the men’s and women’s gold medals in the 10km Open Water Swimming competition.
Competing in his maiden KIBG, Anurag stopped the clock at 2:22:02 seconds, a good 16 minutes before silver medallist Akshaj P managed to reach the finish line.
Anurag, who trains in Delhi under the guidance of his father, prepared for KIBG by doing intense endurance training in the pool for the last one month, and those efforts bore fruit as he was hardly challenged throughout the race.
Beach Kabaddi ========= Rajasthan clinched both the men’s and women’s gold medals in Beach Kabaddi defeating the formidable Haryana teams.
In the women’s final, Rajasthan defeated Haryana 47-27 while their men registered a 43-36 victory over Haryana to make it a grand double for the state.
Beach Sepaktakraw ============ Haryana’s Beach Sepaktakraw team, however, ensured that the state will end the day with at least one gold on Friday when they defeated Uttar Pradesh 15-8, 15-7.
In the men’s final, Bihar got the better of Andhra Pradesh 15-13, 15-13.
The Khelo India Beach Games 2026, organised by the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, is being held under the technical supervision of the Sports Authority of India and national sports federations.
The second edition of Khelo India Beach Games 2026 has over 1100 participants in eight different sports — volleyball, soccer, sepaktakraw, kabaddi, pencak silat, Open water swimming, mallakhamb and tug-of-war. PTI TAP AM TAP AM AM
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