KIUG 2025: World Champion Archer Aditi Swami Wins Title; Swimmer Srihari Nataraj Finishes With Nine Gold (round-up)

KIUG 2025: World Champion archer Aditi Swami wins title; swimmer Srihari Nataraj finishes with nine (Image Source: IANS)

Khelo India University Games Rajasthan: World Champion archer Aditi Gopichand Swami and swimmer Srihari Nataraj hogged the limelight, the young archer picking her first gold of the competition while the swimmer bagged his ninth on the fifth day of competitions in the Khelo India University Games Rajasthan 2025 across Rajasthan on Friday.

Aditi continued her unbeaten run in the Khelo India competitions with the Shivaji University archer claiming gold in the compound women’s individual event at the Jagatpura Archery Range in Jaipur on Friday.

On the other hand, Olympian Srihari Nataraj and Bhavya Sachdeva helped Jain University stamp their authority in the pool, ending the contingent’s swimming campaign with 27 gold medals. Jain University sits atop the medal standings with 45 medals.

The fifth edition of KIUG 2025 is being held across seven cities in Rajasthan. A whopping 4448 athletes from 222 Universities are competing in 23 medal disciplines. The Games are being held under the aegis of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in collaboration with the Rajasthan State Sports Council and are being hosted by Poornima University.

The 19-year-old Aditi, who had won the gold medal in all the Khelo India Youth Games she entered, made a fantastic Khelo India University Games debut by securing gold in the women’s compound individual event. In the individual final, Aditi defeated Taniparthi Chikitha of Lovely Professional University 147-143 to top the podium.

“The Khelo India Games provided me with the platform to experience how top-level competitions are held, and that helped me immensely when I went for international competitions. My form was a bit indifferent in the last few months, and I was keen on performing well here as I am looking forward to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where Compound Archery has also been included,” she told SAI Media.

Just like Aditi has been a dominant force in archery, Bangalore’s Jain University underlined its stature as the best swimming contingent. The second edition champions, who boast of the country’s best swimmers, including Olympian Srihari Nataraj, bagged seven gold medals out of nine events on the final day of swimming action to complete their eventual tally, including 27 gold medals, nine silver, and nine bronze. Lovely Professional University is second with 22 gold medals, and Guru Nanak Dev University is third with 21 gold medals.

Olympian Srihari Nataraj was the star of the final day at the SMS Swimming pool, winning the 100m freestyle gold with a time of 52.30s and 50m backstroke (26.53s) before joining his teammates in the 400m Medley Mixed relay to finish the Games with nine gold and two silver medals.

Guru Nanak Dev University cyclists dominated the track events, winning both the men's and women's team sprint gold medals, women’s team pursuit, and Barsarani Barik added the women’s 500m individual time trial with a time of 00:38.535s, ahead of Mahatma Gandhi University’s Sanjana VS.

Meanwhile, in Bharatpur, where the wrestling competitions are being held, Lovely Professional University, which had racked up six gold medals on the previous two days, had a lesser outing on Friday as none of their wrestlers could win a gold medal. Although they won three silver medals, the prized gold eluded them on the last day of the wrestling competition, much to their disappointment. Still, with six gold medals, they leave the wrestling event with the most gold medals and as the most successful university.

Among important results on Friday, local university Dr KN Modi University picked up its second gold, following Sagar’s gold in the men’s 97kg Greco-Roman category on day two -- all thanks to Khushi in the women’s 68kg freestyle. Shalina Sayer Siddhi from the Siddi community, representing the Karnatak University, won a bronze medal in the women’s 57kg freestyle. The Siddis are of African descent and have been living in India for centuries now. Her win truly highlights the inclusive nature of the Khelo India initiative.

RESULTS:

ARCHERY

Women

Compound: Gold – Aditi Gopichand Swami (Shivaji Uni); Silver – Taniparthi Chikitha (LPU); Bronze – Madhura Dhamangaokar (Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil University)

Compound Team: Gold – Lovely Professional University; Silver – Guru Kashi University; Bronze – Punjabi University

Men

Compound: Gold – Prathamesh Fuge (SPPU); Silver – Mihir Apar (Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada Uni); Bronze – Hritik Sharma (GNDU)

Compound Team: Gold – Chandigarh University; Silver – Guru Kashi University; Bronze – Savitribai Phule Pune University

Compound Mixed Team: Gold – Savitribai Phule Pune University; Silver – Punjabi University; Bronze – Chandigarh University

BADMINTON

Women

Team: Gold – Lovely Professional University; Silver – SRM University, Tamil Nadu; Bronze – Chitkara University

Men

Team: Gold – Chitkara University; Silver – University of Mumbai; Bronze – Panjab University

CYCLING

Women

500m Ind. Time Trial: Gold – Barsarani Barik (GNDU) 00.38.535s; Silver – Sanjana VS (Mahatma Gandhi Uni) 00:39.454s; Bronze – Sayali Arande (Shivaji Uni) 00:39.454s

Team Sprint: Gold – Guru Nanak Dev Univ 01:16.894s; Silver – Lovely Professional Uni 01:17.634s; Bronze – Chandigarh University 01:19.828

Team Pursuit: Gold – Guru Nanak Dev University 04:11.736s; Silver – Panjab University 04:21.168s; Bronze – Lovely Professional University 05:58.323s

Men

1000m Ind. Time Trial: Gold – Mahendra Bishnoi (LPU) 01:08.956s; Silver – Mangesh Takmoge (SPPU) 01:10.679s; Bronze – Sahibpartap Sarkaria (GNDU) 01:10.934

Team Sprint: Gold – Guru Nanak Dev Uni 01.07.453s; Silver – Chandigarh University 01:08.315s; Bronze – University of Kerala 01:08.853s

Team Pursuit: Gold – Chandigarh University 04:46.039s; Silver – Lovely Professional University 04:59.004s; Bronze – University of Kerala 05:06.135

FENCING

Women

Team Foil: Gold – Guru Kashi; Silver – Guru Nanak Dev Uni; Bronze – Panjab University; Bengaluru City Uni

Men

Team Epee: Gold – Guru Nanak Dev Uni; Silver – Kurukshetra Uni; Bronze – Chandigarh Uni, Rabindranath Tagore Uni

Team Sabre: Gold – Guru Nanak Dev Uni; Silver – Uni of Jammu; Bronze – Kurukshetra University, Panjab University

JUDO

Women

+78kg: Gold – Brahamleen (PUP); Silver – Muskan Rathi (PU); Bronze – Bhoomika VN (RCU), Sanskruti Patil (Shivaji Uni)

Men

+100kg: Gold – Hritik Kumar (LPU); Silver – Yash Ghanghas (CU); Bronze – Rohit (GNDU), Yash Tanwar (DU)

SHOOTING

10m Air Rifle mixed team: Gold – Veer Narmad South Gujarat Uni; Silver – Kurukshetra Uni; Bronze – University of Madras

SWIMMING

Women

100m freestyle: Gold – Nina Venkatesh (Jain Uni) 1:00.09s; Silver – Naisha Shetty (Bengaluru City Uni) 1:01.18s; Bronze – Yogya Singh (LPU) 1:01.20s

200m medley: Gold – Shrungi Bandekar (Jain Uni) 2:32.53s; Silver – Yashvi Kharat (HSNC Uni) 2:38.40s; Bronze – Kalyani Saxena (Sarvajanik Uni) 2:38.77s

1500m freestyle: Gold – Ashmita Chandra (Jain Uni) 19:05.15s; Silver – Diksha Yadav (Savitribai Phule Uni) 19:25.82s; Bronze – Ayushree Dutta (Rama Devi Women Uni) 20:09.12s

100m breaststroke: Gold – MU Joyshree (Sri Ramchandra Institute of Higher Education) 1:16.52s; Silver – Vasupalli Naga Greeshmini (Jain Uni) 1:17.05; Bronze – Divyanka Dibyajot (KIIT) 1:18.07s

50m backstroke: Gold – Pratyasa Ray (Utkal Uni) 31.13s; Silver – Bhakti Wadkar (SPPU) 31.43s; Bronze – Shrungi Bandekar (Jain Uni) 31.73s

Men

100m breaststroke: Gold – Manikanta L (Jain Uni) 1:06.44s; Silver – Yash Gulhane (Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Uni) 1:06.69s; Bronze – P Sudhesh Kumar (TN Physical Education Uni)

100m freestyle: Gold – Srihari Nataraj (Jain Uni) 52.30s; Silver – MJ Praveenkumar (Uni of Madras) 53.18s; Bronze – Aneesh Gowda (Christ Uni) 53.24s

50m backstroke: Gold – Srihari Nataraj (Jain Uni) 26.53s; Silver – Dhyaan M (Reva Uni) 27.54s; Bronze – Xavier D’Souza 27.87s

4x100 medley Mixed: Gold – Jain University 4:21.56s; Silver – Chandigarh University 4:25.67s; Bronze – Savitribai Phule Pune University 4:26.63s

WEIGHTLIFTING

Women

77kg: Gold – Khushbu Kumari (MGU) 180kg; Silver – Nicemol Thomas (UCK) 178kg; Bronze – Soweta Kundu (CSJMU) 155kg

86kg: Gold – Maganti Keerthi (KLU) 186kg; Silver – Vaishnavi Pawar (SSPU) 185kg; Bronze – Muskan (KUH) 178kg

Men

94kg: Gold – Abhijeet Panday (DBUP) 288kg; Silver – Komal Karthik Amballa (LPU) 282kg; Bronze – M Ashok (ANU) 285kg

110kg: Gold – Yogendra Singh (LPU) 306; Silver – Aakash Kaushal (GKU) 305kg; Bronze – Aman Chaudhary (DAVV) 222kg

WRESTLING

Women:

57kg freestyle: Gold: Rajni (Chandigarh University), Silver: Anjali (Lovely Professional University, Punjab), Bronze: Shalina Sayer Siddhi (Karnatak University)

59kg freestyle: Gold: Gayatri Ramesh Sutar (Karnatak University)

68kg freestyle: Gold: Khushi (Dr K N Modi University), Silver: Monika Monika Monika (Lovely Professional University, (PB)), Bronze: Muskan (Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa)

72kg freestyle: Gold: Mansi Lather (Maharshi Dayanand University), Silver: Harshita (Lovely Professional University, (PB)), Bronze: Nikita (Kalinga University)

Men

Greco-Roman 130kg: Gold: Deepanshu (ITM University, MP), Silver: Krishna (Maharaja Surajmal Brij University)

Greco-Roman 77kg: Gold: Sagar Thakran (ITM University, MP), Surjeet (The Maharaja Bhupinder Singh Punjab Sports University), Bronze: Priyanshu Singh (Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University)

Greco-Roman 63kg: Gold: Himanshu (Chaudhary Ranbir Singh University), Silver: Kuldeep (Lamrin Tech Skills University, Punjab), Bronze: Bharat Kuddemmi (Rani Channamma University, Karnataka)

86kg freestyle: Gold: Pushpender Dalal (Maharshi Dayanand University), Silver: Vanshidhar Yadav (Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith)

Greco-Roman 63kg: Gold: Himanshu (Chaudhary Ranbir Singh University), Silver: Kuldeep (Lamrin Tech Skills University, Punjab), Bronze: Bharat Kuddemmi (Rani Channamma University, Karnataka)

57kg freestyle: Gold: Rohit (Kurukshetra University, Haryana), Silver: Abhishek Singh Yadav (Dr. Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya (MP), Bronze: Shubham (CT University)

Article Source: IANS