Maharashtra denied Delhi a clean sweep of team championship honours in the 34th National Games tennis championship here on Friday.
Karan Rastogi played a major role in Maharashtra's triumph both in the final and in the semifinals against Tamil Nadu.
After Shahbaaz Khan lost to Ashutosh Singh in straight sets, Rastogi beat Vivek Shokeen. He and Nitin Kirtane combined to down Singh and Shokeen 7-5, 7-6.
Delhi won its fourth gold medal through the ladies who beat Andhra Pradesh 2-0. Prerna Bhambri's easy win over Zainab paved the way for Ratnika Batra to wrap up the second singles beating Sowjanya.
Jharkhand dominates
Jharkhand archers made ample amends to their poor show in the individual section by winning three out of four gold medals in the team championship.
Excepting the compound men's title which was won by Services, Jharkhand teams took the men's and women's recurve and women's compound at Jamshedpur.
Leading stars of the State, Jayanta Talukdar, Deepika Kumari and Jhano Hansdah, played a stellar role in their team's victories.
Fourth gold for Mahitha
Kerala's international cyclist Mahitha Mohan annexed her fourth gold medal of the Games by winning the women's 48 km mass start event with a time of 1 hour 31 minutes and 04 seconds.
In fact it was a 1-2-3 for Kerala as Parvathi and Deepa Chandran came in second and third.
The men's 80 km mass start was won by Pankaj of Haryana in a time of 1:53:50s. Delhi took the silver and bronze medals.
Jharkhand won two and Karnataka one gold medal on the final day of the weightlifting competition at Jamshedpur. The host emerged the best with a haul of five golds, one silver and two bronze medals.
The results: Tennis: Team championship: Men: Final: Maharashtra bt Delhi 2-1 [Shahbaaz Khan lost to Ashutosh Singh 4-6, 5-7; Karan Rastogi bt Vivek Shokeen 6-1, 6-3; Nitin Kirtane & Rastogi bt Singh & Shokeen 7-5, 7-6(10)]. Semifinals: Maharashtra bt TN 2-0 (Kirtane bt A. Selvaraj 7-5, 3-6, 6-3; Rastogi bt Mithun Murali 1-6, 6-2, 6-1).
Women: Final: Delhi bt AP 2-0 [Prerna Bhambri bt Zainab Ali 6-4, 6-3; Ratnika Batra bt Sowjanya 4-6, 7-6 (9), 6-1].
Archery: Team: Recurve: Men:Final: Jharkhand bt UP 220-212. Third place: Assam bt Services 217-211. Women: Final: Jharkhand bt Bengal 218-198. Third place: Assam bt UP 207-202. Compound: Men: Final: Services bt AP 226-223. Third place: Delhi bt Jharkhand 229-221. Women: Final: Jharkhand bt Manipur 218-212. Third place: Punjab bt Bihar 218-213.
Cycling: Men: 80 km mass start: 1. Pankaj (Har) 1:53:50s, 2. Sachin Kumar (Del), 3. Arvind Panwar (Del). Women: 48 km mass start: 1. Mahitha Mohan (Ker) 1:31:04s, 2. Parvathi V.G. (Ker), 3. Deepa Chandran (Ker).
Weightlifting: Men: 105 kg: 1. Gurmeet Singh (Jhr) (140+163) 303, 2. Pradeep Singh (Ser) (125+160) 285, 3. Abdul Arif Khan (MP) (116+159) 275. Over 105 kg: 1. Sarabjit Kanda (Jhr) (160+185) 345, 2. Sandeep Kumar (Ser) (138+181) 319, 3. V. Prabhakar (AP) (132+158) 290. Women: 75 kg: 1. Bibitha Devi (Kar) (77+105) 182, 2. Reena Kaintura (Har) (72+90) 162, 3. Y. Omika Devi (Jhr) (70+88) 158.
