Shabana zara

Khelo India Winter Games: Hosts Ladakh won their first gold medal of the Khelo India Winter Games (KIWG) 2026 when their women’s relay quartet won the 2000 metres short track race at the Nawang Dorjay Stobdan (NDS) Stadium here on Saturday. However, Haryana raced to two more gold medals from short-track skating to lead the medal standings with four golds overall.

By virtue of winning the 2000m short track relay at the NDS, hosts Ladakh rose to the No. 2 position in the medal tally. The Ladakh quartet of Skarma Tsultim, Shabana Zara, Tasnia Shameem, and Insha Fatima were simply too strong for the racers from Karnataka and Maharashtra, the only teams to qualify for the final. In a race full of flips and crashes, Ladakh too had falls, but came back strong to win gold.

Sachin Singh of Haryana was the toast of the day for Haryana. He first won the men’s 500m short track sprint and then helped his state clinch the 3000 metres short track relay gold ahead of Karnataka (silver) and Himachal Pradesh (bronze). Sachin thus became the first skater in KIWG to win two gold medals.