Delhi sweep medals in shooting

After dominating the first five days by picking the lion's share of gold medals, hosts Punjab suffered a major jolt on Monday with a twin reverse in hockey and Delhi reigning supreme in shooting on the sixth day of the 31st National Games.

The Delhi shooters swept all the four gold medals on offer at the Mohali shooting range, which saw one meet record fall by the wayside on a day which brought little luck for the hosts.

The lone meet record, on a low-keyed day, came from talented shooter Sonika Menon of Delhi who bagged the gold medal in the women's 10 metre air pistol individual event with an effort of 474.4 points, eclipsing Harbinder Kaur's record of 374 points.

With the completion of the athletic events, the scene of action turned to Jalandhar, where the day unfolded in dramatic fashion, with defending champions Punjab suffering a stunning 2-3 defeat at the hands of Services in the men's hockey semi-final.

Punjab's woes were compounded when their eves too lost their semi-final encounter 2-4 to Haryana.

The honours were shared in weightlifting, with Chandigarh and Andhra Pradesh picking up a gold medal each while Maharashtra, Manipur, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh won a gold medal each of the four golds on offer in the taekwondo event held in Anandpur Sahib.

Lifter Sher Pratap Singh of Chandigarh added one more gold medal to his team's kitty by claiming the honour in the men's 94 kg category while P Shailaja of Andhra Pradesh took the other gold in the women's 75 kg category.

The day turned out to be quite a disasppointing one for the hosts as their men's hockey team failed to combine well and paid the price in the semi-final against Services.

Services will now clash with Karnataka for the hockey title while in the women's section Haryana will cross swords with Maharashtra in the final.

Both the women's hockey semi-finals turned out to be totally one sided affairs with neither Haryana nor Maharashtra being really tested as the script unfolded on expected lines.

While Haryana defeated Punjab with a comfortable 2-0 margin, Maharashtra beat Chandigarh 4-1 in the other semis.

The Punjab football team, however, made amends for the shocking defeat of their hockey players by carving out a fluent 2-0 victory over Goa to storm into the semi-finals of the men's football event.

While Punjab will clash with Services in the first semi-final, defending champions Maharashtra will lock horns with Goa in the second semi-final, scheduled to be held under floodlights.