National Games of India 2015 Results: Kerala Medal Winners, Updated Schedule

The National Games of India return after a four-year absence with the 2015 edition in Kerala, pitting the nation's states against each other in a series of sporting events from January 31 until February 14.

The event is traditionally organised every two years, but it has faced some setbacks in the past decade, and the 35th edition returns to Kerala for the first time since 1987. The home state took a strong start on Sunday, but Haryana and Services SCB took control of the medal table on Day 2.

Defending champions SSCB controlled the medal standings for the majority of the event and easily won their third consecutive title, with Kerala edging Haryana for second on the final day.

Read on for the full schedule and complete recaps of the the 2015 National Games of India.

Schedule

Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press

Event/Sport	Event Dates
Opening Ceremony	Jan. 31
Closing Ceremony	Feb. 14
Aquatics	Feb. 1 to Feb. 7
Archery	Feb. 1 to Feb. 9
Athletics	Feb. 9 to Feb. 13
Badminton	Feb. 9 to Feb. 13
Basketball	Feb. 9 to Feb. 13
Beach Handball	Feb. 1 to Feb. 5
Beach Volleyball	Feb. 1 to Feb. 5
Boxing	Feb. 6 to Feb. 13
Canoeing & Kayaking	Feb. 9 to Feb. 13
Cycling	Feb. 5 to Feb. 13
Fencing	Feb. 9 to Feb. 13
Football (Men)	Feb. 1 to Feb. 9
Football (Women)	Feb. 1 to Feb. 10
Gymnastics	Feb. 1 to Feb. 6
Handball	Feb. 8 to Feb. 13
Hockey	Feb. 1 to Feb. 11
Judo	Feb. 10 to Feb. 13
Kabbadi	Feb. 9 to Feb. 13
Kho Kho	Feb. 1 to Feb. 5
Lawn Bowls	Feb. 1 to Feb. 9
Netball	Feb. 1 to Feb. 5
Rowing	Feb. 2 to Feb. 5
Rugby Seven's	Feb. 11 to Feb. 13
Shooting-Pistol/Rifle	Feb. 1 to Feb. 7
Shooting-Trap&Skeet	Feb. 1 to Feb. 8
Squash	Feb. 1 to Feb. 4
Table Tennis	Feb. 1 to Feb. 5
Taekwondo	Feb. 10 to Feb. 13
Tennis	Feb. 1 to Feb. 8
Triathlon	Feb. 9 to Feb. 10
Volleyball	Feb. 9 to Feb. 13
Weightlifting	Feb. 1 to Feb. 5
Wrestling	Feb. 1 to Feb. 4
Wushu	Feb. 7 to Feb. 13
Yachting	Feb. 1 to Feb. 5

Medal Table

Hassan Ammar/Associated Press

State	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
SERVICES SCB	91	33	35	159
KERALA	54	48	60	162
HARYANA	40	40	27	107
MAHARASHTRA	30	43	50	123
PUNJAB	27	34	32	93
MADHYA PRADESH	23	27	41	91
MANIPUR	22	21	26	69
TAMILNADU	16	16	20	52
GUJARAT	10	4	6	20
ASSAM	9	5	11	25
KARNATAKA	8	21	24	53
TELANGANA	8	14	11	33
JHARKHAND	8	3	12	23
UTTAR PRADESH	7	31	30	68
WEST BENGAL	6	12	30	48
ODISHA	6	5	4	15
ANDAMAN NICOBAR	6	4	3	13
ANDHRA PRADESH	6	3	7	16
DELHI	5	12	29	46
RAJASTHAN	5	6	7	18
TRIPURA	5	0	0	5
JAMMU KASHMIR	3	2	10	15
UTTARAKHAND	2	5	12	19
CHHATTISGARH	2	4	4	10
GOA	1	3	7	11
CHANDIGARH	1	2	13	16
MIZORAM	1	2	3	6
ARUNACHALPRADESH	1	2	1	4
HIMACHAL PRADESH	1	1	1	3
MEGHALAYA	1	1	1	3
BIHAR	0	2	5	7
DAMAN AND DIU	0	0	1	1
Overall Total	405	406	523	1334

Courtesy of results.kerala2015.com

Day 13 Recap

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SSCB predictably won their third consecutive National Games of India title on Friday, the final day of the event. The massive favourites easily held off hosts Kerala and Haryana in the medal standings, capping off the 35th edition of the Games in style with more gold on the track.

Tintu Luka was the biggest story, however, as the hometown favourite smashed an 18-year-old record in the women's 800-meters before leading Kerala to gold in the 4x400-meters.

She was ecstatic after the race, telling Times of India how thankful she was of everyone she worked with: "I am very happy because I have broken the meet record. It was a good race for me. I am lucky to have a coach Like P T Usha. I would like to thank her for getting me so far."

Maharashtra's Lalita Barbar joined in on the record-breaking fun, taking nearly a full minute off the previous benchmark for the women's 3000-meters steeplechase. Lalita finished in 9:42.63, just seven seconds shy of the national record.

Sajeesh Joseph won his third consecutive gold in the men's 800-meters, while Dutee Chand was shocked in the final of the women's 200-meters, managing only bronze after being thoroughly out-ran by Kerala's Santhini V and Anilda Thomas.

Dutee's afternoon went from bad to worse in the 4x400 meters, losing out to Kerala, led by Tintu. Naveen Kumar and Jaiveer Singh both won gold medals for SSCB.

Away from the athletics' track, former world cadet champion Vipin Kumar won gold in the men's bantamweight division, after SSCB's Durga Rao Vankala was forced to retire from the bout due to an injury.

The province got its revenge in the -52kg division, however, with Sandeep trashing Jatinder Singh of Punjab.

Kerala took home the gold in the women's volleyball tournament, the final event of the day.

Fans had to wait four years for the event's return, and while the organisation in Kerala did a fantastic job, SSCB's continued dominance and the absence of several star athletes due to ongoing disputes with the event will leave a bad aftertaste. The Games won't return in 2017, with the next edition set for 2019 in Goa.

Day 12 Recap

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Former Asian champion Renjith Maheswary finally won his maiden National Games Gold medal, while Kerala supplanted Haryana on the medal table, taking second behind SSCB on Thursday.

The defending champions remain the clear-cut favourites to win the tournament a third consecutive time, further building their lead with yet another productive day on the athletics track.

Renjith, a former bronze medalist at the Commonwealth Games, set a new Games record by clearing 16.66 meters in the triple jump, finishing four centimeters better than Arpinder Singh in 2011.

The 29-year-old had never managed better than bronze during his long and storied career at the National Games, and he was visibly emotional after his win, telling the Times of India how the gold helped him cope with the disappointments of 2014:

"

I am very happy with how I performed and it has helped me put behind the bad memories of the last one year, especially the Arjuna awards controversy.

I have also qualified for the World Championships (scheduled from August 22 to 30 in Beijing) and I am looking to resurrect myself. I was aiming to better the meet record and it is very satisfying to have done that.

"

Controversy reigned in the men's 400-meters final, after favourite and record-holder Joseph Abraham was disqualified for a false start. SSCB's Durgesh Kumar took full advantage, but he received his gold medal under a chorus of boos from the Kerala fans.

Those boos turned to cheers when Any Raghavan took the gold in the women's event, one of the day's top performances from Kerala that led to the hosts overtaking Haryana in the standings.

SSCB still rule supreme, however, and their dominance was emphasised when Siddhanth Thingalaya ran the 110-meters hurdles in a blistering 13.83 seconds, nearly three-tenths of a second faster than the previous National Games record.

Boxing will take center stage on Friday, with all finalists now decided. SSCB are once again strongly represented and with a healthy lead 45 gold medals at the top of the standings, it seems the rest of the pack is now just fighting for second place.

Day 11 Recap

Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press

Dutee Chand celebrated her return to the track by winning the gold medal in the women's 100-meters on Wednesday, smashing the National Games record in the final by clocking in after 11.76 seconds.

The 19-year-old, who is currently banned from international competition and therefore couldn't run at the Commonwealth Games or Asian Games, told The Times of India how happy she was with her performance, even if she didn't better her personal best:

"

The weather here has really helped my performance, it is neither very cold nor very hot, which has helped my body to perform to the optimum. Although, I could not produce my personal best of 11.73sec but I am glad that I have managed to do so well after the good showing in the National Championships.

"

Dutee wasn't the only athlete to set a new Games record in the 100-meters; the men's race was won by Dharambir Singh, who took .06 seconds off the previous record, winning in 10.46 seconds.

Dharambir never even planned on running the 100 meters, having made the trip to Kerala to compete in the 200 meters, but confident in his form, he decided to enter the shorter distance as well and promptly shocked everyone in attendance.

SSCB set a new record in the men's 400-meters, courtesy of Arokia Rajeev, and the defending champions continued their fun run through the event on Wednesday, taking their gold-medal tally to 66, more than double that of Haryana, who sit second in the standings.

Punjab's Khushbir Kaur, the strong favourite for the women's race walk title, announced she wouldn't be starting just hours before the race, allowing Rajasthan's Sapna Punia to steal the gold.

SSCB and Punjab took top honours in the hockey competitions, while Kerala were the big winners on the final day of canoeing and kayaking, with two gold medals and one silver.

Day 10 Recap

Saurabh Das/Associated Press

Hosts Kerala took their gold-medal count beyond the 20-mark on Tuesday as they picked up two more top gongs in the badminton and the cycling.

The Keralan men's badminton team retained their gold in Kochi with a thrilling 3-2 final win over Haryana, Arun Vishnu and Alwin Francis taking the deciding doubles match.

Their female counterparts, though, had to settle for silver as they lost 2-0 to a strong Telangana outfit.

Kerala's other gold of the day came in the 10km elite women’s scratch race, Mahitha Mohan coming in first while her state teammates V.R. Rajani and S. Bismi claimed silver and bronze respectively.

Services SCB continued to extend their lead at the top of the medal table as they moved onto an astronomical 55 gold medals, 27 clear of closest challengers Haryana.

Satbir Singh picked up one of Services' Tuesday gold medals with victory in the elite men’s 15km scratch race, beating Tamil Nadu’s C. Rajesh into second and Pankaj Kumar into third.

Madhya Pradesh had a terrific Day 10 of the Games as they picked up a whole slew of medals in kayaking and canoeing, while long-jumper Ankit Sharma was the star of the second day of athletics at the University Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram.

He won the gold medal in the long jump in a hugely impressive display which saw him break a Games record twice.

Ankit bettered Shyam Kumar's 1994 jump of 7.79 metres before then producing the National Games' first leap to breach the 8m mark.

Madhya Pradesh now sit fifth in the medal standings having picked up five golds on a terrific Tuesday of action in Kerala.

Day 9 Recap

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

Services SCB continued their assault on the medal table on Monday, passing the 50-gold-medal marker, almost twice the number managed by any other state at this point.

It was also a good day for Kerala, though, as they took their gold-medal count up to 19 following a couple of wins in fencing, as well as the 5,000 metres.

R Bhavani Devi dominated Punjab's Komalpreet Shukla 15-6 in the women's individual sabre event shortly before V.P. Dilna followed suit with another podium-topping display in the women's epee final.

Heading into the women's 5,000-metre event, Kerala team captain Preeja Sreedharan may have been looked upon as the most likely star to take the spoils.

However, it was team-mate O.P. Jaisha who not only claimed the gold, but set a new Games record of 15 minutes and 31.37 seconds.

Jharkhand took their sixth gold medal of the Games thanks to Deepika Kumari, who took the archery team events by the reins on Monday, helping her state to wins in both women's team and mixed team events.

With the form she was displaying, one might have expected Kumari to take individual honours too, but she could only finish fourth as team-mate Laxmi Rani Majhi beat Satbir Kaur Saini of Assam 7-3.

Kerala also booked their spots in both team badminton finals, where the men edged Uttar Pradesh 3-2 to set up a crescendo against Haryana, while the women's team will face Telangana after dealing Maharashtra a 2-0 semi-final defeat.

Services excelled in the triathlon to take gold in both men's individual and team event, where Minachandra Singh impressed with a time of one hour and 57.02 seconds to trump the rest of the field.

Day 8 Recap

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The 35th National Games of India reached the half-way point on Sunday, with Services SCB still holding a comfortable lead atop the medal table after eight days of action.

Maharashtra have the edge in total medals but trail the two-time defending champions by virtue of total gold medals, with Haryana sporting the same amount of gold medals as Maharashtra in third place.

The swimming and shooting competitions came to a conclusion on Saturday, and Sunday's action was mainly focused around archery, cycling, football and wushu. The highly anticipated athletics event will start on Monday.

Rajasthan's Rajat Chauhan bagged himself two gold medals and one silver, winning in the individual and mixed competition before narrowly losing out to Punjab in the men's team event in a shootoff, after their match ended tied at 229.

Abhishek Verma had to settle for bronze in the men's team event and lost out to his rival in the individual final, a repeat of last year's Asian Games.

Tamil Nadu's Ram Kumar Ramaverma took the gold medal in the men's individual tennis event, beating statemate Sri Ram Balaji with relative ease, 6-2, 6-4.

Maharashtra continued their push for a high finish with a win in the women's 28-kilometers individual time trial, with Rutuja Satpute finishing over a minute ahead of the rest of the pack.

The wushu competition started with a bang, as M Sadananda surprised everyone by winning gold in the men's Taolu event, ahead of SSCB's M Gyandas. Meanwhile, Odisha and Manipur qualified for the women's football final, both cruising to easy 3-0 wins.

The athletics event will finally start on Monday, giving the likes of Maharashtra and Haryana a chance to gain on SSCB in an attempt to stop the defending champions from completing a hat-trick of titles.

Day 7 Recap

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Another day, another series of dominant performances from Services SCB. The team is looking for its third straight National Games title and has a stranglehold on the medal table after one week of action, only growing their lead on Saturday.

Sharp-shooter Vijay Kumar led the way with two more gold medals on Saturdya, taking his tally to five for the event, just one behind Kerala's Sajan Prakash, who still leads the individual battle.

The Olympic silver-medalist led SSCB's team to the gold in the 25-meters rapid fire before bagging the gold medal in the individual event as well, and he told the Times of India he was glad he didn't let the high expectations get to him:

"

After the London Olympics I was told several times that 25m rapid fire belongs to me, I am glad that I could live up to these expectations. Injuries have affected me badly but I am glad to have done so well here. Shoot offs are common in this event and I am just so happy to be back in reckoning after an injury layoff. I was trying to ensure that I stuck to my technique and it got me the desired results.

"

Heena Sidhu led Punjab to the gold in the women's team event before doing the double in the individual competition, pushing her state past Madhya Pradesh on the medal table.

The cycling competition was one of the most anticipated events of the day, and Naveen John Thomas got things off on a spectacular note, winning the 36-kilometers individual time trial with a time of 50:08.047.

Manipur won the men's and mixed team events in archery, but Assam proved too strong in the women's competition.

SSCB have dominated virtually every discipline during these National Games and lead Maharashtra by 17 gold medals, although the latter still holds the advantage in most total medals. Haryana sit third, thanks to a strong start to the week, while Kerala are still surviving inside the top five thanks to the heroics of Prakash in the pool.

With plenty of team competitions scheduled for the second week, the amount of total medals handed out is set to drop, boosting SSCB's chances of grabbing a historic hat-trick even further. It will likely be up to Maharashtra to try and catch the current leaders, but as things stand, it's unlikely SSCB will give up the top spot anytime soon.

Day 6 Recap

Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press

Tripura gymnast Dipa Karmakar stormed the podium on Friday with a haul of five medals to pull her state up the medal rankings and into the top 10.

Accumulating 52.100 points in total, the 21-year-old triumphed in individual all-round, table vault, balancing beam, uneven parallel bars and floor exercises to finish in the spotlight, just as she did four years ago.

Those five wins are also the first medals of Tripura's campaign at the 35th National Games of India, although her compatriots will need to replicate such heroics if the state is to figure among the best come competition's end.

In shooting, Satyendra Singh claimed two gold medals for Services. His first win came alongside Chain Singh and Surendra Rathod in the 50 metre Rifle 3 Positions men's team event before then topping Maharashtra's Swapnil Kusale in the men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions individual event.

Maharashtra did have more success in the Kho-kho finals, however, finishing first in both the men's and women's events. It was a tight decider in both as Kerala's male representatives fell 14-12 to the might of Maharashtra, while their women's team came even closer, losing 11-10.

Jharkhand, Delhi, West Bengal and Assam each took home a gold medal from lawn bowls on Friday and Delhi also managed to taste victory in women's beach handball. They beat Chhattisgarh in that final, but Chhattisgarh did manage to go one better than silver in the men's crescendo, downing Gujarat 2-0.

On the theme of sand events, Andhra Pradesh made it to both beach volleyball finals, but were only able to claim one gold on Friday as they overcame the threat of Telengana to emerge 18-21, 21-17, 15-10 victors in the men's event.

Their women couldn't replicate the feat, however, losing to host state Kerala  in straight sets (23-21, 21-19) and were left to settle for silver.

Day 5 Recap

Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press

Services SCB stormed to the top of the medal table on Day 5 as they gained their 31st gold medal of the competition. However, the disappointment of the day came for host Kerela as their men's football team were eliminated from the competition.

The home team were beaten in their final group match of the opening phase, losing 2-0 to a jubilant Goa side, making sure Kerala depart proceedings on goal difference.

Earlier in the day, Maharashtra moved into the last four after their 2-1 victory over Tamil Nadu.

There was also huge disappointment from Kerala's women's football team as they were soundly beaten 5-0 by Odisha, giving the away team first place in their group.

However, there were scenes of joy for Kerela in the rowing as they grabbed three gold medals.

Dittymol Varghese once again shone, winning both the women's Single Sculls 500-metre and Double Sculss 500-metre. Kerala's women's Coxless Four 500-metre team made it a hat-trick of golds, as they powered to their win.

Haryana showed their supremacy on the netball court, securing gold in both the men's and women's event. They defeated Punjab and Karnataka respectively to take the plaudits.

Unsurprisingly, the squash was dominated by favourites Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa as the international stars of the sport won the men's and women's finals.

Day 4 Recap

Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press

Haryana regained the top spot in the medal standings thanks to strong performances from their wrestlers on Wednesday, while experienced veterans Saurav Ghosal and Joshana Chinappa unsurprisingly took the gold medals in the individual squash tournaments.

Services SCB remain the favourites for the overall title, but the small state of Haryana continues to impress in Kerala, and Wednesday was no different. With the wrestling competition coming to an end, the team contributed an incredible 18 gold medals to Haryana's tally, along with two silver and two bronze medals.

SSCB are the defending champions and going for a hat-trick. Unsurprisingly, they too have started out strong. The duo already has a strong lead on the medal board, with Maharashtra a distant third.

Vijay Kumar, a silver-medal winner during the London Summer Olympics, won both the team and individual 25-metre centre pistols events on Tuesday and added a third today, as a member of the SSCB team that took the gold in the standard pistol men's competition.

He only managed a disappointing third in the individual event, however, but that competition was won by SSCB's Gurpreet Singh, adding yet another gold to the state's tally.

Tamil Nadu is known as a hotbed for talented squash players, but no one could have expected all of the finalists in the men's and women's competition to come from the same state. Chinappa easily won her final in three sets, while Ghosal overcame a loss of the first set to beat Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu.

Sajan Prakash might have a statue erected for him after bagging yet another gold medal for home state Kerala, setting yet another record in the process. This time, the swimming star finished the 200-metre butterfly final in a time of 2:00.69, smashing a Games' record that had stood for 18 years.

A full list of the day's medal winners can be found here.

Day 3 Recap

Dita Alangkara/Associated Press

It was a day of falling records at the 2015 National Games of India. It proved to be a very fruitful day for Services SCB. The province returned to the top of the medals table.

That return was sparked by a record-setting shoot from Vijay Kumar. He fired a golden double, including a 583 score in the Men's 25m center fire pistol event, per The Times of India.

The same report detailed how Kerala won an inaugural National Games gold medal for shooting. The award was given to Elizabeth Koshy in the women's 50m Rifle Prone event.

It was further proof of Koshy's recent rise in the sport. She's also claimed silver in the Asian Shooting Championship and shot for India at two World Cups and the Olympics, per another report from The Times of India.

But that wasn't the only gold Kerala claimed on the day. Another first-placed medal followed in the Highboard Diving event, when Siddharth Paradesi beat the field, per the competition's official Twitter account.

Over in the Weightlifting event, Services lifter Vikas Thakur broke his own national record in the men's 85kg Snatch, per the games' official site.

A full list of the day's medal winners can be found here.

Day 2 Recap

Rob Griffith/Associated Press

Haryana and Services SCB shot to the top of the medal table on Day 2 of the 2015 National Games of India, while Sajan Prakash continued his dominance for Kerala in the swimming event, winning another gold medal.

Prakash was the big star of Day 1 with two gold medals, two new Games records and a silver, and he added to his impressive haul on Monday with another gold, this time in the 1,500-meter freestyle.

He also added another silver in the 200-meter freestyle for good measure, as the 21-year-old is quickly establishing himself as the top athlete in the 35th edition of the Games.

The full list of every individual medal winner can be found by clicking here.

Services SCB have their rowing team to thank for their high spot on the medal table, with Naveen Kumar and Suchcha Singh Tomer combining for four gold medals on Monday.   

Gujarat and Assam have won just one medal each after two days of competition, but both provinces did manage a gold in swimming and weightlifting, respectively. Of the 29 states of India, 11 have yet to medal.

Tragedy struck the 35th edition of the Games earlier on Monday, however, as 21-year-old netball player Mayuresh Pawar of Maharashtra reportedly died of cardiac arrest after a match against Chandigarh, according to Shaju Philip of the Indian Express.  

Day 1 Recap

Rob Griffith/Associated Press

Sajan Prakash bagged two gold medals and one silver on Day 1 of the 2015 National Games of India, as Kerala took a commanding lead in the medal table. Maharashtra won six total medals as well, but with just one gold handed to the state on Sunday, the gap with the home state is already significant.

The full list of every individual medal winner can be found by clicking here.

Prakash took silver in the 200-meter freestyle before bagging two gold medals in the 100-meter butterfly and the 4x100-meter freestyle relay, setting a new Games record in the former event with a time of 55.03 seconds, according to Manorama Online's Prem Udayabhanu.

The event's official Twitter feed is already calling him the Golden Boy of Kerala for his excellent performances on Sunday.

Kerala won five of their six medals in the pool on Sunday, and fans were treated to a spectacular day of swimming all-round, as five Games records were broken across six finals, per Udayabhanu.

Richa Mishra took the gold in the women's 100-meter butterfly, beating Jyotsna Pansare and Pooja Raghava Alva.

In weightlifting, Srinivasa Rao Valluri, Preeti Preeti and Sanjita Chanu Khumukcham won the first gold medals of the competition, the latter fulfilling the role of favourite after her gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The only gold medal of the day in wrestling went to Sandeep Tomar, who beat Amit Kumar in the 57-kilogram category, undoubtedly the biggest upset of the day. Kumar is the reigning Commonwealth Games gold medalist and won the silver medal at the World Championships, but superior tactics saw 2013 Commonwealth champion Tomar walk home with the gold.