By Our Special Correspondent
After being neck and neck from Day 1, hosts Haryana and defending champions Maharashtra will fittingly battle it out one last time on Monday, hoping to annex the Khelo India Youth Games, 2021 crown.
Surprisingly, even on the last day, the duo collected five gold medals each to maintain the status quo of the last two days, with Maharashtra having the lone gold advantage.
At the time of writing, Maharashtra has 42 gold, 35 silver and 30 bronze, while Haryana has 41 gold, 35 silver and 42 bronze. It also includes the Mallakhamb Poll Gold won by Maharashtra, which has not yet been reflected in the official medal table.
Haryana, on the other hand, will enter the ring with the utmost confidence on the final day as they have bagged 20 gold medals in boxing. They had 12 boxers in the finals, while Maharashtra had only four.
Maharashtra is also in the Kho-Kho two finals and is expected to pick up the gold. Two basketball matches and two boys' table tennis and football summit clashes have not been played in Haryana or any of the other finals.
In the Welterweight (63.5 - 67 kg) event, City's Achal Veer Karvasra defeated Madhya Pradesh's Mohit Kanjar 5-0 in the light middleweight (67-71 kg) semifinals; Ashish Hooda defeated Manik Singh of Maharashtra 5-0. In the girls' flyweight (48-51 kg) category, Mohammad Billal defeated the Chandigarh-based poet 4-1. The poet matched the bronze medal. In the featherweight (54-57 kg) weight category, Renu lost to Manipur H Grevia Devi and bagged another bronze for Chandigarh.
The day started with Archers Riddhi (Girls Reserve) from Haryana and Aditi Swamy (Girls' Federation) from Maharashtra opening gold medal accounts for their respective states. Swimmer Apeksha Fernandez won two gold medals in the 200m butterfly and 50m breaststroke, while table tennis star Dia Chitale defeated Delhi's Target Narang 4-3 in the girls 'singles final, beating Rishabh Ghubde's boys' pole vaulter Mallakramb.
Kerala continued to dominate in the mixed events, winning three of the four gold medals on offer on the final day of the competition, returning to the top five with 14 gold, 12 silver and 12 bronze. Karnataka finished 3rd due to swimmers.
The Tamil Nadu girls' football team added a gold medal to their tally with a 2-0 win over Jharkhand by two girls of the same name - Shanmuga Priya and Shanmugapriya - scoring one goal each.
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