New Delhi, March 23 : The fourth day of the second edition of the Khelo India Para Games saw Punjab's powerlifter Jaspreet Kaur and Haryana's Manish grabbing the headlines. Jaspreet became the first athlete in KIPG 2025 to break a national record here on Sunday. In the 45 kg category, the 31-year-old lifted 101 kg to claim the gold medal at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium complex on Sunday. Manish, too, lifted 166 kg, to set a new national record in the 54 kg category.

At the end of Sunday's events, 132 gold medals had been decided with Tamil Nadu and Haryana jointly leading the charts with 24 gold medals each. Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh followed with 17 and 16 gold medals, respectively.

Jaspreet broke her national record of 100kg to set a new benchmark at the Khelo India Games 2025. In December 2023, she also won the gold medal in the same event, with the heaviest lift of 85kg. 'But I wanted to perform even better this time around. Shattering a national record has also helped me climb up the national rankings,' she was quoted as saying by SAI Media.

Lifting 16kg more in less than two years was no easy feat. Jaspreet went through intense training, researched various new techniques, and made changes to her diet to retain fitness. The biggest challenge to overcome was dealing with the anxiety issues.

'I made my debut in 2022 at the nationals. So, I always felt I was quite new to the sport. It took me a while to realise that developing strength and muscle, would take time. It does not happen overnight. It took me three years to deliver such performances,' Jaspreet, who had polio since the age of 3, further said.

Shanmugam claims three gold

After three days of continuous action, the athletics competition also came to an end on Sunday with Tamil Nadu's Ramesh Shanmugam establishing himself as the next big rising star. By winning the men's 1500 run (T53/T54 category), Shanmugam claimed his third gold medal of the 2025 Khelo India Para Games.

Bhagyashri Madh Jadhav also won her second gold of the tournament in women's shot put in the F33/F34 category, after earlier having bagged a gold in the women's javelin throw F33/F34 category on Saturday.

At the other end of JLN Stadium, the archery events came to a conclusion with star para archer Sheetal Devi going past rival Payal Nag from Odisha to win the gold medal in the compound women's open category in a closely-contested final.

The 44-year-old para archer Adil Mohammed Nazir Ansari from Maharashtra, who had won the gold medal in the Khelo India Para Games in December 2023, once again won the gold medal in the W1 round men's event, defying his age.

At the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range, Sumedha Pathak from Uttar Pradesh caused a major upset in the women's 10m air pistol SH1 category as she defeated the 2024 Paralympics medallist and tournament favourite Rubina Francis to claim the gold medal.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra's Sagar Balasaheb Katale also claimed the top prize MIXED 10m air rifle Prone SH2 categories defeating Tokyo 2020 Paralympian Swaroop Mahavir Unhalkar, who settled for silver.

/IANS