The Khelo India University Games 2021 concluded on Tuesday with the men and women kabaddi finals, drawing the curtain on 10 days of high octane sporting action.
The hosts Jain University ensured there would be no complications to their grasp on the title, sealing it a day in advance courtesy Priya Mohan’s exploits on the track and two gold in Karate.
They ended up with 20 golds, three more than their closest competitors Lovely Professional University – 17 gold, 15 silver, 19 bronze.
While LPU ended up with the most medals of any university in the competition, their gold deficit saw them lose the title to the hosts.
Defending champions Panjab University finished third – 15 gold, 9 silver, 24 bronze.
The Games were also a great example of the growth and improvement in this level of competition since its last edition.
In total 97KIUG records were broken or equalled at KIUG 2021.
A mind boggling 42 were in weightlifting, 28 came in the pool, while 23came in athletics.
Two national records were also broken in the competition — Siva Sridhar setting a new mark in the Men’s 200m Individual Medley and MT Ann Mariya breaking the clean and jerk record in the women’ weightlifting +87kg class.
Sridhar was the runaway athlete of the Games, winning 7 golds and two silvers in the competition.
The swimmer also set a new KIUG mark with each gold he won in the pool. Swimmer Shrungi Bandekar four gold and one silver make her the most successful female athlete at the games. Priya Mohan’s 200m, 400m double secured her spot as the most dominant athlete on the track.
The Khelo India Scheme is the flagship Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports. It aims at infusing sports culture and achieving sporting excellence in the country thus allowing the populace to harness the power of sports through its cross-cutting influence.
The Khelo India programme includes playfield development; community coaching development; promotion of community sports; establishment of a strong sports competition structure at both school and university level as also for rural / indigenous sports, sports for persons with disability and women sports; filling up of critical gaps in sports infrastructure, including creation of hubs of sports excellence in select universities; talent identification and development; support to sports academies; implementation of a national physical fitness drive for school children; and sports for peace and development.
GOI has increased funds allocation for Khelo India programme by 48% in budget 2022-23.
