MADURAI: The Punjab team put on a dominant show as they bagged four gold, two silver and three bronze medals in the Gatka event during the Khelo India Youth Games 2024 held in Madurai on Tuesday. Meanwhile, teams from Delhi and Chandigarh secured two gold medals in other gatka categories on Tuesday.
As part of the sixth edition of the Khelo India Games, events for gatka, a traditional martial arts form, were held at the Madurai SDAT complex between January 21 and 23. Across six categories, including farri soti team events, farri soti individual and single soti individual events, athletes from 19 states, including Tamil Nadu and reigning champions Punjab participated.
The semifinal and final matches were held on Tuesday, with a dominating Punjab girls team defeating Delhi in the farri soti team event to emerge as the champions.
Following suit, the Punjab boys team also defeated Delhi in the farri soti team event to win the finals. Meanwhile, Punjab’s Gursewak Singh defeated Delhi’s Harjasdeep Singh.
In the fourth match, the individual soti event for girls ended in a tie. However, a 60-second tiebreaker was held to determine the winner, in which Punjab’s Prabhkiran Kaur defeated Ramandeep Kaur from Chhattisgarh to take home the gold medal.
In the individual farri soti event, Delhi’s Jasmeet Kaur secured gold, defeating Gagandeep Kaur from Punjab. In individual farri soti, Chandigarh took home the gold as the match ended with the opposition Punjab player getting a red card for a technical foul.
As the event ended, Punjab took home four gold, two silver and three bronze medals, while the Delhi team secured one gold, three silver and two bronze medals. The Chandigarh team secured one gold, one silver and three bronze medals. Haryana secured two bronze medals, while Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh secured one bronze medal each.
Madurai MP Su Venkatesan, police commissioner Loganathan and other dignitaries presented the athletes with medals. Participants stated that the event was conducted grandly this year. Many athletes were able to secure victories through small margins.
"We are in the learning stage. Yet we have improved a lot as compared to the previous years. This year, Tamil Nadu athletes were able to reach round two. More awareness should be raised among the youth to attract more athletes. In the future, Tamil Nadu will get a podium finish," Tamil Nadu Gatka Federation secretary Selvaraj said.