Madhya Pradesh on Saturday picked up from where it left off on day two, to draw the curtains on the inaugural edition of the Khelo India Water Sports Festival (KIWSF) in Srinagar.
The tournament, being organised on the scenic Dal Lake, saw the State pick up an additional six gold medals on the final day to take its tally to 18. The count includes three silver and five bronze medals.
With Odisha (10 medals — four gold, five silver and one bronze) and Kerala (seven medals — three gold, one silver and three bronze) rounding up the top-three, the leaderboard understandably saw the bases of the premier water sports excellence centres of the country dominate the show.
Olympian rower Arjun Lal Jat’s much-anticipated return to action turned out to be a damp squib as he lost the men’s single scull 1000m gold medal to an unheralded Aviraj from Odisha.
Shikha Chauhan, Reena Sen and Pallavi Jagtap provided the headline acts; the trio is fresh from winning a historic silver medal for the country at last week’s Asian Canoe Slalom Championship in Guizhou, China, despite the lack of an artificial slalom course in India.
And they didn’t disappoint the onlookers either, with all three finishing among the medals. Shikha won the kayaking singles slalom gold, and Pallavi finished top in the canoeing singles, where Reena (representing the State of Uttarakhand) finished third.
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“We try our best to make do with natural water bodies like the Narmada. We have tried to train in Shillong’s whitewater rapids as well. On our international tours only, we get to train in artificial facilities. In Thailand, ahead of the Asian Championships, we trained in artificial waters, and that is largely what had contributed to the win,” Reena said.
Host Jammu and Kashmir finished seventh with one each of gold, silver and bronze medals. Mohsin Ali won the first gold medal of the Games in the 1000m men’s kayaking. Two more youngsters, Sajad Hussain and Muhammad Hussain, who train under SAI coach Zulfkar Ali Bhat at the Nehru Park Centre, were the other medal winners.
RESULTS (All finals)
CANOEING & KAYAKING
K1 Slalom (men): 1. Hitesh Kewat (Madhya Pradesh) 01.13.07 sec 2. Aanak Chouhan (Gujarat) 01.14.57 sec 3. Vikash Rana (Meghalaya) 01: 17.52 sec
C1 Slalom (women): 1. Pallavi Jagtab (MP) 01.36.30 sec 2. Manasvi Raikwar (Maharashtra) 01.37.44 sec 3. Reena Sen (Uttarakhand) 01.39.59 sec
C1 Slalom (men): 1. Dhruv Raj Dholpuria (MP) 01.27.05 sec 2. Vishal Verma (Uttarakhand) 01.27.62 sec 3. Nagidi Rajesh (Andhra Pradesh) 01.31.54 sec
K1 Kayak slalom (women): 1. Shikha Chauhan (MP) 01.23.60 sec 2. Nagidi Gayathri (Andhra Pradesh) 01.24.98 sec 3. Elizabeth Vincent (Meghalaya) 01.28.95 sec
K4 500m sprint (men): 1. Balamurali MJ, Aswinkesh VS, Alan Reji and Adarsh P Anil Kumar (Kerala) 01.29.38 sec 2. Harshvardhan Singh Shaktawat, Vishal Dangi, Yashu Vishwakarma and Nishant Rana (Uttarakhand) 01.29.94 sec 3. Ningthoujam Ngangba Singh, Lanthoiba Potshangbam, Konjengbam Nelson Singh and Laiphrakpam Sanatomba Singh (Manipur) 01.32.69 sec
C2 500m sprint (women): 1. Rasmita Sahoo and Achoibam Sanatombi Devi (Odisha) 02.11.02 sec 2. Pragati Sharma and Dipika Dimar (MP) 02.13.07 sec 3. Salam Chaoba Devi and Ramkanya Dangi (Uttarakhand) 02.14.96 sec
K4 500m sprint (women): 1. Bidya Devi Oinam, Shruti Tanaji Chougule, Leichonbam Sonia Devi, Konsam Yaiphatombi Devi (Odisha) 01.50.89 sec 2. Swati Sahu, Ashly MK, Karishma Suresh, Pukhrambamroji Devi (Uttarakhand) 01.51.58 sec 3. Dally Bishnoi, Neelu Verma, Rukmani Dangi, Manvi Jat (MP) 01.52.38 sec.
ROWING
Coxless Fours (women, 1000m): 1. Angel Mariya Raju, Vismaya Vipin, Trisna Anil Kumar, Meenakshy VS (Kerala) 03.31.50 sec 2. S. Tamil Selvi, Rose Mastica Meril, Rohini Priya, R Bagavathy (Tamil Nadu) 03.33.00 sec 3. Sonali Swain, Anushka Patel, Sonalika Das and Arunprit Kaur (Odisha) 03:33.77 sec
Coxless Fours (men, 1000m): 1. Bhopal Singh, Bhupandar, Kapil, Nitin (Delhi) 02.55.66 sec 2. Shme, Rohit, Sachin, Mohit Kumar (Haryana) 02:58.10 secs 3. Banti Sendhav, Harsh Tomar, Akshay Yadav, Dheeraj Verma (MP) 02:59.49 sec.
Coxless pair (men, 1000m): 1. Vipul Satish Ghurde and Jasmail Singh (Maharashtra) 03:12.13 secs 2. Harshpratap Singh Jat and Devraj Singh (MP) 03: 15.04 sec 3. Navdeep and Hardeep Singh (Telangana) 03:20.26 sec
Lightweight double scull (women, 1000m): 1. Santosh Yadav and Rukmani (MP) 03:34.26 secs 2. Sweeti and Anshika Bharti (Odisha) 03:38.43 3. Reena Kumari and Kiran Devi (Meghalaya) 03:40.21 sec
Single scull (men, 1000m): 1. Aviraj (Odisha) 03.27.54 sec 2. Arjun Lal Jat (Delhi) 03.28.68 sec 3. Ajay (Jharkhand) 03.30.34 sec
Double scull (women, 1000m): 1. Ashwani Kumaran VP and Anna Helan Joseph (Kerala) 03:42.37 secs 2. Bhagyashree Ghule and Gursharanpreet Singh Kaur (Odisha) 03:43.200 secs 3. Vanshika Sahu and Priyanka Chahal (MP) 03:44.20 sec
Double scull (men, 1000m): 1. Bhupinder Singh and Prithvi Singh Cheema (Punjab) 03.08.63 sec 2. Arpit Singh and Pankaj Kulhari (Delhi) 03.09.89 sec 3. Suraj Singh and Rahul Chaudhary (Uttarakhand) 03.10.30 sec.
Coxless pair (women): 1. Manisha Dangi and Jigyasa Regar (MP) 03.40.58 sec 2. Jasmeen Kaur and Jashanpreet Kaur (Punjab) 03.44.45 sec 3. Sruthimol Biju and Amala Rose (Kerala) 03.56.22 sec.
Lightweight double scull (men 1000m): 1. Sumit Rathi and Harinath Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 03.11.11 sec 2. Ramanpal Singh and Jaspal Singh (Chandigarh) 03.12.41 sec 3. Sinesh Kumar and Vineet Thalod (Rajasthan) 03.13.89 sec
Single scull (women): 1. Shweta Brahmachari (West Bengal) 04.00.86 sec 2. Amandeep Kaur (Punjab) 04.01.89 sec 3. Yumnam Chengloulembi Devi (Manipur) 04.02.61 sec.
Published on Aug 23, 2025
