Guru Nanak Dev University cyclist Meenakshi Rohilla grabbed the first gold medals of the Khelo India University Games (KIUG) Rajasthan 2025 in the women's individual time trial while former champions Jain University, thanks to their swimmers led by Olympian Srihari Nataraj, took early lead on the medals table on the opening day at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium complex here on Tuesday, as per a release from KIUG.

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

Jain University Dominates Opening Day

There were a total of 25 gold medals on offer on the opening day and Jain University grabbed the early lead on the medals tally by bagging eight of 11 swimming gold medals. They also grabbed two silvers and four bronze to open up a big lead over Lovely Professional University, who bagged two gold medals in shooting and two in weightlifting. Guru Nanak Dev University also bagged three gold medals on the opening day with Mitvaben Chaudhari winning the women's Eppe gold and Aakhri clinching the women's Saber gold after Meenakshi had opened their account in the morning.

Olympian Srihari Nataraj Shines

Olympian Srihari Natraj, won two individual gold medals and then led Jain University to men's 4x200m freestyle relay gold, started his campaign with a gold medal in men's 100m backstroke with a time of 58.25s and then returned to the pool in a few minutes to dominate the 50m freestyle race, touching the pad first in 23.79s.

The other gold medallists for Jain University included Bhavya Sachdeva (women's 400m freestyle), Shoan Ganguly (men's 200m IM), Manikanta L (men's 200m breaststroke), Nina Venkatesh (50m freestyle) and women's 4x200m relay.

Cycling Makes Golden Debut

Earlier, cycling made its debut in the Khelo India University Games program and Meenakshi bagged the first gold medal of the Games. Meenakshi, a 2022 Asian Championships bronze medallist in Team Pursuit, proved that she was a force even in road racing as she bagged the gold medal here with a well-calculated race strategy. She trains at the Sports Authority of India's National Centre of Excellence in Patiala.

The 23-year-old was trailing local favourite Pooja Bishnoi of Maharaja Ganga Singh University for the first lap of 10 kms but gathered pace thereafter to finish the 30km Individual Time Trial with a timing of 00:45:31.907, averaging a speed of 39.5 km/hr. "Today, my strategy was to stay patient, maintain my rhythm and not rush early. The strategy worked exactly as planned," said Meenakshi, who had been training for the time trials for the last three months, told SAI Media, as quoted from a release by KIUG.

Bishnoi took home the silver medal with a time of 00:46:52.003 while Savitribai Phule Pune University's Apurva Gore won the bronze medal with a time of 00:47:24.933.

Manav Sarda clinched the first gold medal for Maharaja Ganga Singh University in the men's 40km Individual Time Trial with a time of 00:52:12.947.

Action from Shooting and Weightlifting

Elsewhere, Sakshi Padekar of Lovely Professional University bagged the women's 10m Air Rifle gold with a final score of 253.2. Disha Dhankhar of Panjab University won the silver with 252 points while R Narmada Nithin of University of Madras won the bronze medal with a total of 230.5 at the Jagatpura Shooting Range.

Sakshi had also topped the qualification round with a total of 633.5 and helped the University also grab the team gold along with Priyanka Das and Sanjeeta Das with a total of 1884 points.

Weightlifting Winners

In the weightlifting competition in Bikaner, Kajol Mahadev Sargar of Shivaji University (women's 48kg), Lovely Professional University's Golom Tinku (men's 61kg) and Bornali Borah (women's 53kg) clinching gold medals at the Indoor Hall of Maharaja Ganga Singh University.

Battling a hip injury for the past two years, Kajol, a former Khelo India Youth Games gold medallist, hoisted a total of 158 kgs (Snatch 73; C&J 85kg) to finish ahead of Rinki Nayak of Berhampur University (149kg), and Chandigarh University's Rani Nayak (148kg).

In men's 61kg, Golom's effort of 256kg (Snatch 112kg; C&J 144kg) was no match to his competitors Khumbheswar Mallik of Chandigarh University (223kg) and Sachin (214kg) of CT University, who finished second and third, respectively on the podium. Later in the day, Bornali lifted a total of 168kgs (Snatch 73kg; C&J 95kg) to finish atop the podium. She was closely followed by Kiuchangliu Gangmei (167kg) of Manipur University for the silver while Anu N of University of Calicut bagged the bronze with a total effort of 150kgs. (ANI)