SSCB men and Jharkhand women excel in taekwondo competition

Ranchi, Feb 15 (PTI) SSCB men and Jharkhand eves endedthe Taekwondo competition on a high note, having won threegold medals each out of a total sixteen, in the 34th NationalGames here today.

The SSCB men also bagged a silver and two bronze medals,while Jharkhand won one bronze in the men''s category and threebronze medals in the women''s bout.

Madhya Pradesh bagged three gold overall -- one in men''ssection and two in women''s category, besides two silvers (oneeach in men and women) and five bronze (three in men and twoin women).

Goa finished with two gold, two silver and two bronze inthe men''s category, while Haryana men won one gold, threesilver and one bronze, but both these two states'' women''s teamcould not win a single medal.

Uttar Pradesh chipped in with just one gold in thewomen''s category, while Manipur returned with one gold and twosilver and Karnataka clinched a gold and three bronze medals.

Howevre, Punjab (one silver/one bronze), Tamil Nadu(three bronze) and Manipur (three bronze) ended without anygold in men''s category.

Sikkim (two silvers/one bronze), Maharashtra (one silver,four bronze), Uttar Pradesh (one silver, two bronze) andKerala (one silver and one bronze) were the other medalwinners in the women''s section.

On the day, Surendra Bhandari of Jharkhand outplayedHaryana''s Saurav in the men''s under 63kg category to take thegold, while MP''s Jitendra Verma and Tamil Nadu''s B JaneyDharma settled for bronze.

In the second and final bout today, Latika Bhandari ofMadhya Pradesh bagged the gold, beating Manipur''s K NanachaDevi in the under 53kg final.

Jharkhand''s Darshanjita Bharali and Karnataka''s BTejaswini claimed the bronze as the losing in the semifinals.

"The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) hasenquired about the gold medalists this morning in the stadium,probably to offer a job with them, said a senior TaekwondoFederation of India official.