KIUG 2025: Cyclist Meenakshi Rohilla finishes with four golds as Guru Nanak Dev University takes top spot in medals tally

Jaipur, Nov 29 (IANS) Guru Nanak Dev University’s (GNDU) Meenakshi Rohilla finished her campaign with four gold and one silver after she won the women’s Scratch and finished behind Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology’s Khoirom Rejiya Devi on the final day of cycling competitions in the Khelo India University Games 2025 here on Saturday.
 

The fifth edition of KIUG 2025 is being held across seven cities in Rajasthan. A whopping 4448 athletes from 222 Universities are competing in 23 medal disciplines. The Games are being held under the aegis of the Sports Authority of India in collaboration with the Rajasthan State Sports Council and is being hosted by Poornima University.

Guru Nanak Dev University won two more gold medals in track cycling and three gold medals in Skeet Shooting to take the top spot in medal standings with 27 gold, nine silvers and 10 bronze.

Overnight leaders Jain University have also won 27 gold and nine silver but have one bronze medal less that the leaders. Lovely Professional University are third with 22 gold medals.

Meenakshi, who trains at Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports (NSNIS) Patiala, had won both the road events – Time Trial and 80km race before helping Guru Nanak Dev University bag the Team Pursuit title on the first day of track event.

On Saturday, the 23-year-old was at her tactical best in the Scratch race as she held herself back till the penultimate lap and surprised the two cyclists ahead of her by taking the inner line to snatch the lead and the gold medal.

Later in the day, Meenakshi (4:14.150s) tried her best to get the better of Rejiya Devi (4:12.798s) in the 3km Individual Pursuit but her tired legs could not match the pace of her opponent and had to settle for a silver medal.

“I am bit disappointed that I could not win the fifth gold as this is the event in which I hold the national record. I tried to catch up with her in the last few laps but I have been racing for the last five days while she was relatively fresh and that made the difference,” she told SAI Media.

Though, Meenakshi failed to win the gold in her last race, her teammates Niya Sebastian and Ritesh Kaushik won the women and men 200m Sprint gold medals to help GNDU jump to second spot in the medals tally with 26 gold medals.

At the Jagatpura Shooting Range, GNDU’s Skeet shooters Rituraj Singh Bundela and Shivani Raikwar clinched the mixed team gold beating Rabindranath Tagore University’s Jyotiradiya Sisodiya and Vanshika Tiwari 44-40 in the final.

Rituraj also clinched the individual skeet gold and also helped GNDU win the men’s team gold.

Simranpreet Kaur Brar of Panjab University bagged the women’s 25m Pistol gold with a final score of 38. Delhi University’s Parisha Gupta (32) and Tejaswini (30) clinched the silver and bronze medals respectively.

In the wrestling competition that came to an end on Saturday in Bikaner, Lovely Professional University topped the chart with four gold and three silver medals despite not bagging any medal on the final day.

On Saturday, Chandigarh University’s Shivani Yadav bagged the women’s +86kg category gold with a total lift of 188kg while Kesav Bissa of Maharshi Ganga Singh University won the gold medal in the men’s +110kg, lifting a total of 352kg.

In the Rugby competition, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology completed the grand double by winning both the men and women events. In the women’s final, KIIT defeated Chandigarh University 17-5 to complete a hat-trick of titles. KIIT men’s team won their first KIUG gold by beating Chandigarh University 15-10 in extra time.

RESULTS

CYCLING

Women

Scratch: Gold – Meenakshi (GNDU) 28:06.164s; Silver – Aditi Dongare (SPPU) 28:06.613; Bronze – Himanshi Singh (Chandigarh University) 28:08.304s

200m sprint:

Gold – Niya Sebastian (GNDU); Silver – Santi Biswas (LPU); Bronze – Sayali Arande (Shivaji University)

Individual Pursuit 3 km: Gold – Khoirom Rejiya Devi (KIIT); Silver – Meenakshi (GNDU); Bronze – khusbhu (LPU)

Men

Scratch: Gold – Pradeep Sankara K (Bharathidasan Uni) 19:14.790s; Silver – Frank Nelson (Uni of Kerala) 19:15.362s; Bronze – Adwaith Sankar SS (Uni of Kerala) 19:15.487s

200m sprint:

Gold – Ritesh Kaushik (GNDU); Silver – Mahendra Bishnoi (LPU); Bronze – Abhindu A (Uni of Kerala)

Individual Pursuit 4 km: Gold – Ravi Singh (Kurukshetra Uni); Silver – Parhalad Kumar (Chandigarh Uni); Bronze –Vasudev Bishnoi (LPU)

RUGBY

Women: Gold – Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology; Silver – Chandigarh University; Bronze – Lovely Professional University

Men: Gold – Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology; Silver – Chandigarh University; Bronze – University of Calicut

SHOOTING

Women

25m Pistol: Gold – Simranpreet Kaur Brar (PU) 38; Silver – Parisha Gupta (DU) 32; Bronze – Tejaswini (DU) 30

25m Pistol team: Gold – Panjab University 1684; Silver – University of Rajasthan 1652; Bronze – Kurukshetra University 1603

Skeet: Gold – Razia Dhillon (PU); Silver – Yashasvi Rathore (MU); Bronze – Karttiki Singh (BNU)

Skeet team: Gold – Rabindranath Tagore University 318; Silver – Guru Nanak Dev University 301

Men

Skeet: Gold – Rituraj Singh Bundela (GNDU) 58; Silver – Bhavtegh Singh Gill (PEC) 57; Bronze – Abhay Singh Sekhon (PBI) 44

Skeet Mixed team: Gold – Guru Nanak Dev University; Silver – Rabindranath Tagore University; Bronze – Rabindranath Tagore University

Skeet Team: Gold – Guru Nanak Dev University 336; Silver – Panjab University 317; Bronze – Rabindranath Tagore University 261

WEIGHTLIFTING

Women

+86kg: Gold – Shivani Yadav (CHU) 189kg; Silver – Swati Yadav (LPU) 188kg; Bronze – Ruchika Dhore (CHU) 183kg

Men

+110kg: Gold – Kesav Bissa (MGSU) 352kg; Silver – Vaishnav Thakur (SPPU) 343kg; Bronze – Sarth Jadhav (MU) 291kg

--IANS

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