KIUG 2025: Trap shooter Neeru Dhanda wins fourth straight gold; Jain University stays atop medals tally

Jaipur, Nov 26 Trap shooters Neeru Dhanda and Aditya Bharadwaj helped Guru Nanak Dev University clean sweep all four shotgun medals on offer in the Khelo India University Games (KIUG) Rajasthan 2025 at the Jagatpur Shooting Range, while their cyclists won both the individual road races to take their gold medal tally into double figures.

Neeru, the reigning Asian Shooting Championships gold medallist, clinched her fourth straight individual gold of the Khelo India University Games (KIUG) with a final score of 47 points and also led Guru Nanak Dev University’s complete dominance of the podium as Manisha Keer (39 points) and Nandika Singh (30) bagged the silver and bronze medals, respectively. The trio also won the team gold with a score of 344 points.

Neeru had finished second behind Manisha in the qualifying, but raised her levels in the final. “I was determined to win the gold today, as this is going to be my last Khelo India University Games. I had won the gold in the last three editions of the University Games, and I wanted to end this with another gold medal,” she told SAI Media. Neeru first played in the Khelo India Youth Games back in 2020, when she won a silver medal, and has since then dominated the University Games.

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 are being hosted by Poornima University.

Aditya Bharadwaj also led the GNDU’s men’s trap team to a golden double with a score of 45 in the final. Punjabi University’s Jungsher Singh Virk took the silver with a score of 43, while Manav Rachna’s Bhaktiyaar Malik won the bronze medal.

Earlier in the day, cyclist Meenakshi Rohilla added the individual road race gold to her individual time trial triumph, and her teammate Akshar Tyagi won the men’s category crown to take Guru Nanak Dev University’s tally to 10 gold.

Second Khelo India University Games champions Jain University continued to top the standings as they added four more swimming gold medals to their Tuesday’s tally of eight, as they won both the 4x100 freestyle relay and Nina Venkatesh (women’s 50m butterfly) and Bhavya Sachdeva (women’s 400m IM) added two more gold medals from the swimming pool.

Chandigarh University’s Harsh Saroha got the better of Olympian Srihari Nataraj in the men’s 50m butterfly, winning the gold with a time of 24.90s. He also clinched the 200m butterfly gold with a time of 2:06.88 seconds, and his teammate Ishan Rathi won the 200m backstroke race with a time of 2:13.51 seconds.

RESULTS:

BADMINTON (quarterfinals)

Men

Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam bt Shri JJt University Jhunjhunu 3-1; Chitkara University bt Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University 3-2; Panjab University bt Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University 3-1; University of Mumbai bt SRM University 3-2

Women

Chitkara University bt Shri JJT University Jhunjhunu 2-0; Lovely Professional University bt Savitribai Phule Pune University 2-0; SRM University bt Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology 2-0; Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak bt Jain University 2-1

CYCLING

Women

Individual Road Race: Gold – Meenakshi Rohilla (GNDU); Silver – Muskan Gupta (Veer Narmad South Gujarat Uni); Bronze – Hemlata Dhakad (Bagalkot Uni)

Men

Individual Road Race: Gold – Akshar Tyagi (GNDU); Silver – Adwaith Sankar SS (Uni of Kerala); Bronze – Chirag Sehgal (LPU)

FOOTBALL (Group stage)

Men: Adamas University bt Chatrapati SM University 3-1; Guru Nanak Dev University drew with University of Calcutta 1-1

SHOOTING

Women

Trap: Gold – Neeru (GNDU) 47; Silver – Manisha Keer (GNDU) 39; Bronze –Nandika (GNDU) 30

Trap Team: Gold – Guru Nanak Dev University 344; Silver – Panjab University 298

Men

Trap: Gold – Aditya Bharadwaj (GNDU) 45; Silver – Jungsher Singh Virk (PBI) 43; Bronze - Bhaktiyaar Malik (MRS) 34

Trap Team: Gold -- Guru Nanak Dev University 335; Silver – Jamia Milia Islamia 291; Bronze – Swami Vivekanand S University 103

SWIMMING

Women

400m IM: Gold – Bhavya Sachdeva (Jain Uni) 5:27.72s; Silver – Kalyani Saxena (Sarvajanik Uni) 5:34.46s; Bronze – A Jedidah (Jain Uni) 5:48.92s

200m backstroke: Gold – Pratyasa Ray (Utkal Uni) 2:29.51s; Silver – Shrungi Bandekar (Jain Uni) 2:30.80s; Bronze – Bhakti Wadkar (SPPU) 2:31.91s

50m Breaststroke: Gold – Rithvika M (KIIT) 34.95s; Silver – Diyanka Dibyajot (KIIT) 35.85s; Bronze –Yashvi Kharat (HSNC Uni) 36.11s

50m Butterfly: Gold – Nina Venkatesh (Jain Uni) 28.40s; Silver – Naisha Shetty (Bengaluru City Uni) 29.40s; Bronze – Nilabjaa Ghosh (KIIT) 29.83s

4x100 Freestyle relay: Gold – Jain University 4:12.50s; Silver – Chandigarh University 4:21.19s; Bronze – Panjab University 4:28.26

Men

1500m freestyle: Gold – Aneesh Gowda (Christ Uni) 16:37.66s; Silver – Shivank Vishwanath (Viseshwarya Tech Uni) 16:38.39; Bronze – Anvesh Singh (Barkatullah Uni) 17:12.36

200m Butterfly: Gold – Harsh Saroha (Chandigarh Uni) 2:06.88s; Silver - Shoan Ganguly (Jain Uni) 2:10.42s; Bronze – Shubhrant Patra (Jain Uni) 2:11.41s

200m backstroke: Gold – Ishan Rathi (Chandigarh Uni) 2:13.51s; Silver – Jatin BB (Viseshwaraya Uni) 2:15.40s; Bronze – Shoan Ganguly (Jain Uni) 2:16.97s

50m Breaststroke: Gold – Vidith Shankar (Reva Uni) 29.28s; Silver - Aaryan Ganesh (Jain Uni) 30.10s; Bronze – Yash Gulhane (Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Uni) 30.49s

50m Butterfly: Gold – Harsh Saroha (Chandigarh Uni) 24.90s; Silver – Srihari Nataraj (Jain Uni) 25.30s; Bronze – Salil Bhagavat (SPPU) 25.95s

4x100 Freestyle relay: Gold – Jain University 3:37.15s; Silver – Lovely Professional University 3:40.84s; Bronze – University of Madras 3:41.19s

WEIGHTLIFTING

Women

58kg: Gold – Rima Bhoi (LPU) 197kg; Silver – Rajyashree Biswas (ADU) 195; Bronze – Khushi Kumari (PPU) 183

Men

65kg: Gold – Sanjay Lokhande (SPPU) 244kg

71kg: Gold – RS Tarun Sharma (GKU) 260kg.

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