Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 26:
Host Manipur bagged two gold medals out of six on offer on the opening day of the 25th National junior Taekwondo Championship at Khuman Lampak Indoor Stadium today.
The State Taekwondo players also fetched one silver and a bronze as Manipur surged ahead in medal hunt of the three day competition being organised by All Manipur Taekwondo Association under the auspices of Taekwondo Federation of India.
M Joimala Devi began the gold medal hunt for the host State defeating B Varsha of Karnataka in the girls� light weight final winning at 7-6 (points).
The bronze medals were shared between Neha Arora (Uttar pradesh) and Deepika Narzary (Madhya Pradesh).
The second yellow metal came in the light middle weight class when M Jesan Singh pipped Pranshu Singh of Delhi 3-1 as Nagaland�s Suresh Singh and Pravin Kumar of Tamil Nadu settled for the bronze as semi final losers.
Manipur missed the third gold by two points when Sh kevin Brown went down to Sachin B Mane of Maharashtra in the fin weight final with the latter winning 7-5.Vikash yadav of Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu�s Dinesh Babu bagged the bronze medals.
S Gambhini Chanu contributed a bronze to the State tally after losing in the semi finals to eventual winner of the feather weight class - Lalremkimi of Mizoram.
Shweta C Shinde of Maharashtra secured the silver with Monika Raikwar bagging the other bronze medal in the group.
In feather weight final, Kyang Darang of Arunachal Pradesh was declared the winner �by superiority� despite tying at four points each against Jitendra Verma of Madhya Pradesh.
Ashwini Negi (UP) and Dipen Kumar Rai (Sikkim) had to be content with the bronze.
Karnataka opened its gold account of the championship when Jayati Pathak outplayed Maharashtra�s Pooja Bhalekar 5-1 in the fin weight final while Bunjan Bala of Uttaranchal and Chanda Nagle (MP) settled for the bronze medals.
Earlier, the opening ceremony was held with Governor Dr SS Sidhu and State YAS Minister Govindas Konthoujam as the chief guest and president respectively while Taekwondo Federation of India president Harish kumar (IPS) graced the occasion as guest of honour.




