Raipur, April 2 Guided by the individual brilliance of their captain, Kiran Pisda, the Chhattisgarh women's football team continued their strong performance in the inaugural Khelo India Tribal Games, defeating Jharkhand 1-0 in the final to secure a gold medal.
The hosts also added the silver and bronze in the men's 4x400m relay and men's 1500m events on the penultimate day of track and field competitions in Jagdalpur.
Further, Jharkhand's Shiv Kumar Soren achieved a remarkable double by adding the 200m gold to his 100m victory.
The Chhattisgarh women's team capitalized on their solitary opportunity against the aggressive Jharkhand team when their captain seized on a defensive lapse to score in the 61st minute, and then the host team held on to the advantage to clinch the title.
"This is a special moment for us because this is the first time so many fans came to support us, and I am very happy that we were able to win the gold medal in front of our home crowd," said an elated Kiran, the only international player in the home squad.
In Jagdalpur, the final day of athletics competitions saw Soren and Karnataka's Reethushree and Nagini claiming their second gold medals on the track at the Kreeda Parisar complex.
Soren, who became the fastest athlete of the Games on Tuesday, clinched the 200m gold with a time of 21.51s.
Earlier, Reethushree added the 200m gold to her 400m win with a time of 25.87s, and then Nagini completed the women's 800m and 1500m double when she won the four-lap race in 4:43.87s.
The hosts, Chhattisgarh, added a silver medal in the men's 4x400m relay after finishing second behind Odisha. The winners clocked a time of 3:18.47s, while the Chhattisgarh quartet finished with 3:19.26s. The bronze went to Jharkhand (3:19.62s).
Earlier, Manish Kumar secured a bronze to boost Chhattisgarh's tally with an effort of 4:01.50s in the men's 1500m final. The gold went to Jharkhand's Rahul Oraon (4:01.18s), with Maharashtra's Kartik Karilharpal (4:01.23s) taking home the silver medal.
With just one day left before the Games conclude, the hosts, Chhattisgarh, move up to ninth place with three gold, nine silver, and six bronze medals.
With Reethushree and Nagini adding two gold medals to Karnataka's tally, the table toppers now have 23 gold, eight silver, and seven bronze medals.
Odisha is second with 20 gold, 13 silver, and 21 bronze, while Jharkhand consolidated their position with four gold medals in athletics and one in archery, bringing their total to 14 gold, seven silver, and 11 bronze.
Jharkhand's archery gold came through former world junior champion Komalika Bari and Krishna Pingua, who clinched the recurve mixed team crown, defeating Odisha's Arjun Khara and Mamitaoram.
Maharashtra's Harshwardhan Ingle clinched the compound men's individual title and then added the compound mixed team crown, partnering Vaishnavi Pardeshi, to take the state's tally to fourth spot in the overall standings with six gold, 10 silver, and four bronze medals.
