India owned the mat in Bahrain, as the kabaddi boys and girls both struck gold on the same day at the Asian Youth Games, powering the nation to fifth place overall with a medal tally of 2 gold, 3 silver, and 5 bronze (2-3-5).
China stayed on top (6-10-1), followed by Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Iran — who, fittingly, were India’s final victims in both kabaddi finals.
At Isa Sports City, the Indian girls ran riot, bulldozing Iran 75–21 in a one-sided gold medal clash. Up 33–12 at halftime, they barely broke a sweat as they piled on 42 more points in the second half.
Their dominance wasn’t new; they’d already crushed Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Iran earlier in the group stage.
The boys’ team had a tougher road, edging out Iran 35–32 in a thriller.
India led 21–16 at the break but had to hold off a late Iranian charge to seal the win by just three points.
India’s Performance Across Other Sports
Elsewhere, the track and field stars kept the momentum going.
Ranjana Yadav grabbed silver in the girls’ 5000m walk (23:25.88), while Ambure Shourya picked up another in the 100m hurdles (13.53s). Jasmine Kaur added a bronze in shot put with a throw of 14.86m.
In taekwondo, Debasish Das and the pair of Yashwini Singh–Shivanshu Patel fought hard for bronze medals in their poomsae events.
Meanwhile, kurash grapplers finished strong — Kanishka Bidhuri took silver in the girls’ 52kg, with Khushi and Arvind collecting bronzes in their respective divisions.
(with PTI inputs)
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