Patna, May 9 (IANS) Bihar’s rugby teams made it a memorable debut for the sport in the Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) 2025 with a double gold at Odisha’s cost, with their boys’ and girls’ teams winning in contrasting styles at the Patliputra Sports Complex here on Friday.
The girls breezed to a 22-0 win, rarely letting the Odisha girls even get within a whisker of a try. The boys, however, had to overcome a stiff fight before winning 14-12 in a contest that was pacy and hotly contested, with neither side giving an inch or asking for one.
The finals were eagerly awaited as Bihar and Odisha have a history of being fierce competitors. And while the girls final turned out to be a platform for Bihar to showcase its dominance, the boys title clash had everyone on the feet, especially when Odisha was leading 12-7 with only a couple of minutes on the clock.
Bihar now has three gold, five silver and eight bronze and now ranked 13th on the table where Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana occupy the top five slots.
Earlier, the KIYG 2025 hosts had a heartbreak on Friday when Bihar girls lost the Sepak Takraw Regu final to Manipur.
Despite suffering a heartbreak loss to Odisha in the girls’ Kho-kho final, Maharashtra continued its relentless quest to stay on top of the medal table. With a title win for the Kho-kho boys team and the air rifle shooting mixed team and three athletes on the final day of swimming competition at the BIPARD Complex, its haul rose to 23 gold.
The twin gold medals won by Rujula S (50m Freestyle) and the boys’ 4x100m Freestyle Relay quartet enabled Karnataka to edge ahead of Rajasthan on the charts with 12 gold, 20 silver and six bronze medals at the time of writing. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana complete the top five on the table of honours.
On the last day of the swimming competitions, which ended in a blaze of glory for Karnataka, Haryana’s Arjun Singh not only emerged the fastest swimmer of the meet with a victory in 23.91 seconds but also claimed his second sprint gold. He had won the 50m Backstroke gold earlier in the week.
–IANS
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