KERALA: Defending champions Services continued their medal-winning spree in the 35th National Games, with shooting fetching them three more gold on Wednesday.
At the shooting range in Thiruvananthapuram, Gurpreet Singh claimed the 25 metre standard pistol gold while Services pocketed the team event as well. Later Chain Singh bagged his second gold, after winning the men's 10 metre air rifle. Uttar Pradesh bagged the silver and bronze in this event with Akhil Sheoran finishing 0.1 points behind Chain Singh and Satyam Chauhan settling for bronze.
Services also picked up a silver in weightlifting in Thrissur through Virender Singh in the men's 94 kg section.
Improving upon their overnight tally of 16 gold medals, the leaders consolidated their position atop the standings with 19 gold.
In weightlifting, Manipur's Geeta Devi Oinam took gold in the 69 kg category. Among men, Jameer Hussain bagged a gold for Assam, in the men's 94 kg.
Meanwhile, Kerala picked up a bronze medal in table tennis, for the first time in National Games, as the rising women's doubles pair of Maria Rony and Seraha Jacob upset the fancied West Bengal team of Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak in the quarterfinals. But their dream run ended in the semifinals, losing to Delhi's Neha Aggarwal and Manika Batra at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi.
Meanwhile, the hosts' lawn bowls team have also assured themselves of a medal in the fours event, after advancing to the semifinal.
Kerala are optimistic of a few more medals in the swimming finals slated to be held later in the day, with as many as four swimmers having moved into the finals of various categories. Among them, Sajan Prakash would be gunning for his fourth gold.