Khelo India University Games: Six golds on offer as swimmers set to start medal frenzy from Monday

Guwahati (Assam) [India], February 18 (ANI): India international Aneesh Gowda of Christ University and Shubham Dhaygude of Savitribai Phule Pune University will be among the eight swimmers vying for the first gold of the Khelo India University Games (KIUG) 2023, Ashtalakshmi, that will be officially inaugurated on Monday at the Sarusajai Sports Complex here.
Six gold medals will be on offer from the swimming competitions on Monday at the Dr Zakir Hussain Aquatic Complex while competitions will begin in hockey, table tennis and weightlifting ahead of the grand opening ceremony which will be graced by Assam Chief Minister, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma in the presence of the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur with competitions to be held till February 29.
The KIUG is an inter-university meet where athletes representing different institutes from all over the country vie for medals in a variety of sporting events. The KIUG is a part of the Indian government's Khelo India initiative, launched in 2016, and focused towards promoting grassroots sports and identifying young talents from all across the country.
Since 2018, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports have organised six Khelo India Youth Games, three Khelo India University Games and four Khelo India Winter Games and multiple Khelo India Women's Leagues in various sports. The inaugural Khelo India Para Games were held in New Delhi in December.
This edition will witness the participation of close to 4,000 sportspersons, vying for a total of 262 gold, 263 silver and 297 bronze medals across 20 sports disciplines over the next fortnight with competitions being held in 18 venues across Guwahati and six other North Eastern cities.
Dibrugarh University has the largest contingent with six members while Manipur University, with 19 athletes has the highest representation from the North East region. Basketball, Kabaddi action begins
Earlier in the day, Panjab University started its campaign in men's basketball with a comfortable 104-92 win over Maharishi Dayanand University while the University of Rajasthan got the better of Swarnim Gujarat Sports University 81-76 in Group B.
In kabaddi, the University of Kota came up with a strong defensive performance to beat Mangalore University 49-40 in men's Group A.
*SUNDAY RESULTS
-BASKETBALL
Women
Group A:
University of Madras bt Lovely Professional University 96-56; Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science bt SRM University, Tamil Nadu 85-62
Group B:
Jain University bt LNIPE 70-43; GND University bt ITM University 79-56
Men:
Group A:
Jain University bt University of Kota 82-63; University of Madras bt Kurukshetra University 81-64
Group B:
University of Rajasthan bt Swarnim Gujarat Sports University 81-76;
Panjab University bt Maharishi Dayanand University 104-92
-KABADDI
Women:
Group A: Lalit Narayan Mithila University bt GKU 39-35
Men:
Group A:
University of Kota bt Mangalore University 49-40
-FOOTBALL
Women:
Group A: Guru Jambeshwar University bt Goa University 1-0; Chaudhary Bansilal University drew with University of Madras 0-0. (ANI)