Pune, (Samajweekly) Pune were crowned champions on the concluding day of the Maharashtra State Olympic Games after bagging five gold medals each in swimming and cycling here at the Balewadi Sports Complex on Thursday.
The sporting powerhouse received the Champions Trophy from Divisional Commissioner Saurav Rao during the colourful closing ceremony, drawing the curtains down on the 12-day competition that had seen over 10,000 athletes fighting for gold and glory in close to 40 sports in 8 cities of Maharashtra.
Overall, Pune took 116 gold, 96 silver and 105 bronze medals for a total of 317. Thane took home the runners-up trophy, grabbing 47 gold, 34 silver and 37 bronze. Kolhapur finished third.
The Best Male Athlete was Rishabh Das of Thane, who fished out 5 gold from the swimming pool. The Best Female Athlete was Pune’s Shraddha Talekar, who also took 5 gold from gymnastics.
Welcoming the guests, Sports Commissioner Suhas Divse said, “We had a great event because of teamwork between the MOA and the Sports Department. The Maha Games will go down as a historic event and do wonders to sports in the state.”
Chief guest Saurav Rao pointed out that the government is extending all support and facilities to the athletes. “It is up to the athletes to take advantage of this. I am sure we will soon produce Olympians,” he said.
Maharashtra Olympic Association secretary Namdev Shirodkar offered the vote of thanks.
On the last day of the Games, 25 gold medals were on offer in boxing and over a dozen in wushu. Though Pune wasn’t expected to dominate the medals tally in these two events, the contingent would have aimed to pocket a few yellow metals to maintain their top standing and then bank of the swimming pool.
Pune, Thane and Mumbai had been the dominant teams in the swimming pool over the last few days and things were no different on Thursday. Pune clinched five of the six gold medals in the women’s category with Sadhavi Dhuri bagging an individual double (50m butterfly and 100m freestyle) before joining force with her other teammates to clinch the 4x200m and 4x50m freestyle gold medals.
In the diving events, Solapur’s Esha Waghmode upset National Games gold medallist Medhali Redkar of Mumbai to clinch the women’s 1m Springboard gold medal.
