KIUG 2023: Chandigarh University Crowned Overall Champions; Pratyasa Ray Most Successful Athlete

A dominant Chandigarh University on Thursday (February 29, 2024) claimed the overall championship at the fourth edition of the Khelo India University Games, held in Northeast India. (More Sports News)

The Khelo India University Games 2023, started on February 17, were officially declared closed by the Assam sports minister Shrimati Nandita Gorlosa at the Sarusajai Sports Complex.

On the final day of the Games, Chandigarh University added five gold, one silver and four bronze medals to finish with a whopping haul of 71 medals -- 32 gold, 18 silver and 21 bronze.

Their gold medals have come from athletics (eight), wrestling (seven), boxing (five), weightlifting (three), swimming (three), fencing (two), kabaddi, rugby, judo and badminton.

Chandigarh University has been on the rise since finishing 34th in the first edition in Odisha. They finished 20th in the second edition and had improved their position to 11th in the last edition in Lucknow.

Lovely Professional University were a distant second with 20 gold, 14 silver and eight bronze while Guru Nanak Dev University finished third with 12 gold, 20 silver and 19 bronze -- the only contingents apart from the champions to cross the 50-medal mark.

Defending champions Panjab University produced a late surge -- winning five gold, two silver and three bronze medals from the boxing competitions -- the men’s event was held in Gangtok, Sikkim, while women in Nehru Stadium, Guwahati -- but could only finish fourth with a tally of 12 gold, 12 silver and 16 bronze.

Second edition champions Jain University, which led the chart for the first few days thanks to their domination of the swimming races, finished fifth with a total of 12 gold, 7 silver and 6 bronze medals.

Individual feats

Swimmers Pratyasa Ray of Utkal University and Michael Dsouza of Jain University Xavier took the honours of the most successful female and male athletes, respectively. Ray collected four gold, one silver and one bronze while D'Souza won four gold medals.

Five new Games records were also set, all in athletics.

1. Vikash (Chandigarh University) in men’s 1500m; 2. Jyoti (Chaudhary Devi Lal University) in women's javelin throw; 3. M Gowtham (University of Madras) in men's pole vault; 4. Vishnu (University of Madras) in men's long jump; 5. Amandeep Kaur (Panjab University) in women's 800m.

In the women's javelin throw event, Chandigarh University’s Deepika had set a new Games record in her third throw only for Jyoti to eclipse her mark and get her name in the record books.