Karnataka Swims to Khelo India Beach Games 2026 Crown; TN Second

The second edition of Khelo India Beach Games witnessed over 1100 participants compete in eight different sports -- volleyball, soccer, sepaktakraw, kabaddi, pencak silat, Open water swimming, mallakhamb, and tug-of-war. The first six were medal sports, and 32 gold medals were awarded. Thirty states and Union territories took part.

With the top three states - Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Manipur -- claiming three gold and two silver medals each, the overall standings of Khelo India Beach Games (KIBG) 2026 were decided by the number of bronze medals won by the respective teams.

Karnataka topped the standings with three gold, all from Open Water swimming, two silver, and six bronze to win the overall crown in the second edition of KIBG. Tamil Nadu finished second with three gold, two silver, and three bronze, while last edition winners, Manipur, finished third with three gold, two silver, and two bronze.

Madhya Pradesh finished fourth, thanks to their exploits in Pencak Silat, which had the highest number of gold medals (16) on offer in KIBG 2026. All the medals of Madhya Pradesh came in the Indonesian martial arts form competition, ending with a tally of three gold, one silver, and one bronze.

Hosts Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, with two gold, two silver, and four bronze, finished sixth behind Haryana, which ended the Games with a tally of two gold, four silver, and two bronze medals. Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Nagaland, and Rajasthan also finished with two gold medals each to complete the top-10 positions in the medals tally.

Before the start of the final day's action at the Ghoghla Beach, Manipur would have fancied their chances of retaining the overall crown as both their men's and women's Beach Sepaktakraw teams had a chance of bagging the gold medal in Trio.

While their women's team achieved their target by beating West Bengal 2-0, Tamil Nadu leapfrogged them to the second spot by winning the men's Trio final 2-1.

Earlier, Ashmita Chandra completed a double by adding the women's 5km Open Water Swimming gold to the women's 10km title she had won on Friday. In the 5km race, Ashmita clocked a timing of 1:35:11s to clinch the gold medal ahead of Diksha Yadav (1:35:53s) of Maharashtra. Karnataka's Aasra Sudhir won the bronze medal with a time of 1:39:14s.

In the men's 5km race, Karnataka's Dhrupad Ramakrishna got the better of 10km race winner Anurag Singh of Uttar Pradesh with a gap of five seconds to win the state's third gold medal. Dhrupad closed a timing of 1:21:33s with Prashans HM adding a bronze medal to the state's tally with a time of 1:24:34s

- IANS