Services poised to emerge champions in National Games

Guwahati, Feb 17 (UNI) Services are all set to emerge as the new champions of the 33rd National Games as they have taken a decisive lead over Manipur on the penultimate day of the Games with 55 gold against Manipur's 48 here today.

There are a few medals yet to be decided and in most of them, Manipur is not a title contender, which has actually ended the rat race between the North Eastern state and Services in favour of the latter.

In fact in hockey and basketball, Services will feature in the finals.

It was a big jump for the Services which ended the last Hyderabad National Games in third place with 48 gold. This time they have already got seven more and on course for two more from basketball and hockey.

But, it was the resounding victory of the north eastern states as a whole which has been the talk of the town as they picked up an astounding 88 golds of the total 392 decided so far.

Of them, Manipur and Asom won 86, shocking the athletes of others states. Manipur were second and Asom came third in the overall medals tally.

The two north eastern states completely dominated the initial days of the National Games here and towards the end only, the Services could come to the top mainly through their pet disciplines like equestrian, shooting and caoeing and kayaking, where there were no outside competition.

However this morning, in basketball, Services entered the final in men's section. They will meet favourites Uttaranchal in final while in the women' section, Chhattisgarh will clash with Tamil Nadu for the gold.

In a nail-biting semi-final, Service defeated Punajb 70-68 but Uttaranchal found an easy opponent in Kerela in their 103-80 victory.

MORE UNI