Gulmarg (J&K), February 24 – On a day when honors were shared, the Army secured their fourth gold medal in the Gulmarg leg of the Khelo India Winter Games 2026, taking the lead in the medal standings on Tuesday.
Another five medals were decided on Day 2 of KIWG 2026 on Tuesday. The highlight of the day was CRPF skier Kajal Kumari Rai winning her second consecutive gold medal in the competition. Ten gold medals have been awarded so far in the Gulmarg leg. The Army added one more to their previous three, bringing their total to five golds. The Army had previously won the men's ice hockey gold in the Ladakh leg of the Khelo India Winter Games 2026.
Haryana continued to hold the second position in the medal tally, with four gold medals, all won by their skaters in Leh, but Maharashtra is just one gold medal behind. Kamiyaa Karthikeyan won Maharashtra's first gold from the ski mountaineering (vertical) competition on Gulmarg's Kongdoori slopes.
Aanchal Thakur, the veteran, has been receiving a lot of attention. The Alpine skier from Himachal Pradesh won her first gold medal in KIWG 2026 in the giant slalom race, comfortably winning with a time of 48.984 seconds. Her teammate, Tanuja Thakur, won silver, but the upcoming skier from Karnataka, Jiah Aryan, once again finished among the medalists.
Kajal Kumari continues to impress. The grief of losing her father may be motivating the Meghalaya cross-country skier to win her second consecutive gold medal in KIWG 2026. Kajal won the 10 km Nordic gold for women again, relegating the favored Bhavani Thekkada Nanjunda of Karnataka to bronze. Hiral from CRPF won the silver.
Army's star skier Padma Namgail led an Army one-two-three in the men's version of the 10 km Nordic race at the Gulmarg Golf course. The Army team was so dominant that the first nine positions were taken by them. Sunny Singh of the Army, who won the Nordic sprint gold on Monday, finished sixth.
RESULTS – Day 2 (all finals):
ALPINE GIANT SLALOM (women): 1. Aanchal Thakur (Himachal Pradesh) 48.984 sec 2. Tanuja Thakur (HP) 51.697 secs 3. Jiah Aryan (Karnataka) 53.790 secs
NORDIC SKI (women – 10 km): 1. Kajal Kumari Rai (CRPF) 32:58.76 secs 2. Hiral (CRPF) 33:14.89 secs 3. Bhavani Thekkada Nanjunda (Karnataka) 33:22.03 secs
NORDIC SKI (men – 10 kms): 1. Padma Namgail (Army) 23:18.63 secs 2. Aman Kumar (Army) 23:22.24 secs 3. Manjeet (Army) 23:23.94 secs
SKI MOUNTAINEERING (Men - vertical): 1. Shardul Thaplial (Uttarakhand) 3: 56.45 secs 2. Siddhartha Gadekar (Maharashtra) 4:09.80 secs 3. Santosh Moktan (Army) 4:14.82 secs
SKI MOUNTAINEERING (Women - vertical): 1. Kamiyaa Karthikeyan (Maharashtra) 05.26.708 secs 2. Natasha Mahar (Himachal Pradesh) 5:53.885 secs 3. Sangeeta Bhatt (Uttarakhand) 6:03.253 secs.
