Meghalaya Games: West Jaintia Hills stuns East Khasi Hills in high profile athletics, clinching 4 gold medals

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJanuary 18, 2024

Athletic team from West Jaintia Hills shocked games favourite East Khasi Hills in the high profile athletics events of the games snatching victory by winning 4 of the 8 events up for grabs here at the Pa Togan Nengminza athletic stadium on Wednesday. 

Ri Bhoi wasn’t far behind as they too bagged two gold medals alongside South West Khasi Hills (SWKH) while East Khasi Hills had to be contended winning one gold medal each to round up two. 

In the Men’s 5000 meters race, Dabit Dkhar of WJH, clocked in at 15:53:9 to beat Banjoplang Wanniang of WKH who was close to 6 seconds behind. The bronze was taken by Iwelljohn Ramsiej with a timing of 16:00:2. In the women’s event for the same distance, SWKH won both the gold and silver with Lyntijingkyrmen K Jahrin winning with a timing of 19:55:2 and Marqueenless Ramsiej following at 20:03:2. Happiness Phawa of WJH took the bronze with a timing of 20:36:7. 

In the women’s long jump event, gold was won by Ribhoi’s Joytiful Narlong with a distance of 4.56 meters while silver went to WKH’s Savinity Jyndiang (4.46). Ribhoi also took the bronze with Shidalin Rongpih jumping a distance of 4.38 meters. 

In the 400 meters for men, WJH again won gold with Kyrshanlang Shylla winning with a time of 50.3 seconds. A little less than a second behind was Donbok Shabong of EKH with Kalbin Marak of East Garo Hills winning bronze at 52.6 seconds. 

In the next event, the Women’s 400 metre race Ribhoi’s Retina Hanse beat her competition clocking 1:01:5 to take home gold. She was followed by Damika Lyngdoh of WJH at 1:03:9 and WKH’s Albamery Sohsang (1:08:4). 

Renaldi Dhar of WJH, who earlier won the 100 metre race yesterday, added another gold medal to his kitty by jumping 6:34 meters to win the long jump for men. He was followed in silver position by Ribhoi’s Makdonal Mahjong (6.34) and EGH’s Chelchak Sangma won bronze with a jump of 6.13 meters. 

In the 4*100 relay race for men it was a resounding win for WJH with gold at an impressive time of 45.3. But the highlight of the event was the neck-to-neck contest for the silver by the teams from EKH (47.0) and WGH (47.0) followed with silver and bronze with only 1 hundredths of a second separating the two teams. 

The last event, the women’s 4*100 metre was won by EKH with 100 metre gold medalist Angelina Jackson being part of the team. EKH came in with a timing of 55 seconds but were given tough competition by the Ribhoi team who were just 3 hundreths of a second behind. WJH won bronze with 56 seconds.