Raipur, March 26 Karnataka swimmer Manikanta L completed a hat-trick of gold medals, dominating the 200m individual medley while Odisha's Anjali Munda clinched her second consecutive gold medal in the women's event on the second day of the Khelo India Tribal Games here on Thursday.
Hosts Chhattisgarh also had reason to rejoice as local hope Anushka Bhagat added a second silver to her tally, finishing second in the women's 200m IM race.
Manikanta, who had won the 100m breaststroke and 50m butterfly gold on the opening day, continued to dominate the field as he won the 200m IM race with a time of 2:25.93s.
Tripura's Riyaj Tripura finished second with a time of 2:34.04s while Kanhu Soren (Odisha) won the bronze with a time of 2:36.21s.
Anjali, who had won the 200m freestyle gold on Wednesday, clinched the women's 200m IM gold with a time of 2:53.82s with Anushka clinching the silver with a time of 2:59.33s. The bronze medal went to Anjali Mallick of Odisha (3:06.13s).
Karnataka leads the medal tally with six gold and two silver while Odisha are second with three gold, one silver and four bronze medals.
In the weightlifting competition, Assam's Monikha Sonowal and Mizoram's Isak Malsawmtluanga braved through injury concerns to come up with a solid performance to clinch gold medals in the women's 48kg and men's 60 category, respectively.
Monikha came to the KITG carrying a knee injury while Malsawmtlunga had to fight through a niggling back injury to put their respective states on the medals table.
Monikha dominated the women’s 48kg event by lifting 57kg in snatch and 75kg in clean & jerk to clinch the gold medal with a total of 132 kg.
Deepa Rani Mallik of Odisha (120kg) and Alaaska Aleena of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1116kg) bagged the silver and bronze respectively.
Monikha, who hails from Assam’s Dhemaji district, had twisted her knee during training three months ago and the coaches were contemplating pulling her out of the Games but she overruled them.
"I was clear that I did not want to miss this event because I wanted to make a mark on the national stage and I am happy that I could perform under pressure," said the 19-year-old.
Mizoram’s Malsawmtlunga had also suffered a back injury a month before the Games in training and that discomfort was still visible as he struggled to lift 108kg in snatch in his third attempt. He was in second place going into clean & jerk behind Odisha's Subrat Naik.
But he came into his own in clean & jerk and successfully lifted 130kg in his second attempt to assure himself a gold medal with a total of 235kg. Naik could only manage a 122kg lift in C&J to finish third with an aggregate of 228kg.
Jharkhand’s Babulal Hembrom took home the silver medal with a total lift of 230kg.