Khelo India:Punjab University emerges winner with 69 medals

Third khelo India University games concluded on Saturday evening. The closing ceremony was held at IIT BHU campus in Varanasi. Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur along with Union Minister of state for Sports, Nishith Pramanik and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath were present at the closing ceremony.Speaking at the closing ceremony of 3rd Khelo India University Games in Varanasi,  Anurag Singh Thakur said that the biggest platform for the selection of talented players in the country has come out of the Khelo India campaign which was initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it was not just for the strengthening of sports infrastructure in the country but also for grooming the talented players and supporting them. He congratulated Uttar Pradesh government for successfully organising the 3rd Khelo India University Games and said that apart from the other kind of development the sports facilities,  sports culture is developing now in Uttar Pradesh. Union Ministers and other dignitaries along with the players and people present at the closing ceremony of third khelo India games paid homage to the people who lost their lives in Balasore train accident. They observed silence of 2 minutes in respect of the departed souls.

Meanwhile, Panjab University regain champions crown as Guru Nanak Dev University fall short despite Fencing sweep on final day. Punjab University, Chandigarh regained their overall champions crown after a gap of one edition of the Khelo India University Games. Despite a clean sweep of the Fencing golds, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, fell short on the final day of competitions. PUC therefore finished with an overall tally of 69 medals including 26 gold, 17 silver and 26 bronze medals. GNDU amassed 24 gold, 27 silver and 17 bronze medals to finish second and in the top three for the very first time. Jain University, Karnataka, last time’s champions, were third with 16 gold, 10 silver and six bronze medals. Jain however will have the solace of having the most successful male and female athletes of the KIUG 2022 UP. Both of them belong to Swimming where Siva Sridhar dominated the men’s section with a total of 11 medals including eight golds while mate Shrungi Bandekar won 5 gold and 4 silver medals in the women’s section. As many as 131 of the 203 Universities who finally participated at the Games.  At least 11 new Games records were created over 12 competition days. The Games were held across nine venues in four cities of UP namely Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Gautambuddh Nagar. The Shooting competition was held in Delhi. Water Sports made its debut at these Games with the Rowing competitions taking place in Gorakh