India won three medals on the final day of the World University Games on Sunday as the contingent closed their campaign with a total of 12 medals at 20th place in Rhine Ruhr. India won two gold medals, five silver and five bronze medals.
This is a poor performance compared to the previous edition in Chengdu, China when India finished seventh in the medal tally with 26 medals in total including 11 gold, 5 silver, and 10 bronze medals.
Steeplechaser Ankita Dhyani won the silver medal in the 3000m while the men’s 4x100m relay quartet bagged a bronze medal. Along with them, the trio of Munita Prajapati, Mansi Negi, and Sejal Singh finished third to win the bronze medal in the women’s 20km team racewalk.
On a day when several Indian athletes were in contention in track events, but could bag only two medals, 23-year-old Ankita, a second-year social sciences student, shaved nearly seven seconds from her personal best time of 9:39.00 seconds to finish a few milliseconds behind Finland’s Ilona Maaria Mononen, who timed 9:31.86.
Adia Budde of Germany took the bronze, clocking 9:33.34 seconds.
On Friday, Ankita had topped Heat 1 by clocking 9:54.79 seconds and secured her place in the final. It was a massive 22-second improvement, which propelled Ankita to second place in the competitive race.
Ankita remained in the top-five through most of the race and came up with a breathtaking sprint in the final 300 metres to almost catch up with the German before missing the gold by just 0.13 seconds.
The men’s 4x100m relay team, comprising Lalu Prasad Bhoi, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar and Mrutyam Jayaram, clocked 38.89 seconds to take the bronze. South Korea took the gold in 38.50 seconds, while South Africa (38.80) bagged the silver.
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The Indian women’s 4x400m relay team came up with a season’s best time of 3:35.08 seconds, but it was not good enough for a medal, as the quartet of Anakha Bijukumar, Devyaniba Zala, Rashdeep Kaur and Rupal finished fifth, clocking 3:35.08 seconds.The German team, despite a poor reaction time, won the gold with a time of 3:29.68 seconds.
The Indian men’s 4x400m relay quartet of Vishal Kayalvizhi, Aswin Lakshmanan, Jerome Jayaseelan Panimaya and Balakrishna finished fifth, clocking 3:06.5.seconds.Poland won the gold with a time of 3:03.64.
Indian medallists at World University Games 2025
Gold medals: Parneet Kaur-Kushal Dalal (Mixed team compound archery), Sahil Jadhav (Men’s compound archery)
Silver medals: Parneet Kaur (Women’s compound archery), Kushal Dalal, Sahil Jadhav, Hritik Sharma (Men’s team compound archery), Praveen Chithravel (Men’s triple jump), Seema (Women’s 5000m), Ankit Dhyani (Women’s 3000m steeplechase)
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Bronze medals: Badminton Mixed Team, Vaishnavi Adkar (Women’s singles tennis), Parneet Kaur, Avneet Kaur, Madhura Dhamangaonkar (Women’s compound team archery), Sejal Singh, Munita Prajapati, Mansi Negi (Women’s 20km racewalk team), Lalu Prasad Bhoi, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar, Mrutyam Jayaram (Men’s 4x100m relay)
