Swimmers of Jain University shine at inaugural Khelo India University Games

Swimmers of Jain University from Bengaluru helped their varsity to take an early lead in the inaugural Khelo India University Games as they won four gold medals here on Sunday.

On the other hand, Guru Nanak Dev University's (Amritsar) fencing squad performed very well, clinching three gold to be on the second spot on a day when fencer Riya Bakshi of Cluster University, Jammu, won the first gold medal on offer.

SV Nikitha of Jain University won the women's 400m freestyle gold with nearly five minutes to spare and then anchoring the 4x200m freestyle relay team to a brilliant victory over Delhi University and the University of Mumbai.

Other gold medallists who won gold for Jain University were Siva Sridhar (men's 400m Freestyle) and SP Likith (men's 200m Breaststroke).

Fans of fencing witnessed gilt-edge contests in the men's Foil and women's Epee finals. Tushar Raosaheb Aheer (Dr BR Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad) rallied to beat Tariq Hussain (Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar) 15-14 after a duel in which it was apparent that his rival was hampered by a ligament tear suffered earlier.

Aheer also had a hand in the team's gold later in the day.

In the women's Epee bout, Jyotika Dutta of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, overpowered Manipur University's Linthoi Haobam.

There was heartbreak for the top-ranked women compound archer Muskan Kirar at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences. She was in top form through the ranking round on Saturday and in the first two rounds on Sunday, and looked good to win the quarterfinal against University of Rajasthan's Kritika Sharma before missing an arrow and lost 136-144.

Kritika Sharma made full use of the opportunity and went on to scalp Babita Kumari (Ranchi University) 144-140 in the semifinals. She will meet Muskan Kirar's Rani Durgawati Vishwavidyala's team-mate Raginee Marko for the gold medal on Tuesday.

Raginee managed to survive tense moments in the quarterfinal match against Sakshi Vaidwan of Lovely Professional University as she secured a 138-136 win.

Top-ranked Sangampreet Singh Bisla, cruised into the men's final, overcoming the first tough challenge by his Punjabi University team-mate Sukhminder Singh with a 147-145 win in the semifinals. In the final, he will meet second-ranked Mukul Sharma (University of Rajasthan). He is in line to win a triple gold, being part of the men's team and mixed teams too.