Gulmarg: Indian Army continued their impressive run on the penultimate day of the Khelo India Winter Games here on Tuesday, claiming four medals to stay on top of the standings.
Army quartet of Narsingh Thapa, Rajeshwar Singh, Sunil Rai, Vishal Chandal clinched the ski mountaineering men’s relay with a timing of 49:58.1. Uttarakhand quartet of Himanshu Singh, Himanshu Kawan, Sunil Rai and Vishal Chandal finished runner-up in the ski mountaineering men’s relay, clocking 52:50.97.
Rajeshwar Singh, who has been training for ski mountaineering since the last three years, expressed his joy after winning two gold medals in the second leg of the Khelo India Winter Games.
Rajeshwar, a rifleman posted at the High-Altitude Warfare School in Gulmarg, won gold in ski mountaineering sprint event the previous day.
“Army has been very supportive towards me. My seniors have always encouraged me to do well in sports. Being stationed in Gulmarg it is definitely an advantage to have the local knowledge, acclimatisation to extreme weather conditions that has helped me till now.
“I want to represent India in international competitions and Khelo India has given players like me a good platform to set benchmarks,” Rajeshwar Singh told SAI Media.
With 7 gold, 5 silver and 6 bronze medals, Army are on top of the standings, one ahead of Himachal Pradesh, who have won 7 medals on the day to jump to the second spot.
Indian Army made a clean sweep of the Nordic skiing men’s 15km event with Sunny Singh clinching gold medal with timing of 41:04.54. Stanzin with a timing of 41:20.70 settled for silver and Thupstan took bronze, clocking 41:51.38.
Himachal Pradesh gave their best-ever performance of the day, making a clean sweep of Alpine skiing women’s slalom and winning top-2 medals in the snowboarding women’s slalom event.
The trio of Anchal Thakur (gold), Tanuja Thakur (silver) and Promila Thakur (bronze) stamped their authority in the alpine skiing event. In snowboarding women’s slalom, Priti Thakur and Prakriti Thakur clinched the gold and silver medal respectively with Urmila Pable of Maharashtra settling for the bronze.
Women skiers from Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) continued their dominance in the Nordic skiing event, clinching all the three medals on offer in the sprint category.
Kusum Rana won her second gold of the Khelo India Winter Games, clocking 06:40.59. Karnataka’s Bhavani Thekkada took the silver with a time of 06:43.65 followed by Selma Soreng, who finished third.
