PANJIM: Goa’s Anand Pandiarajan secured the State’s first gold medal as he muscled past Vipin from Services, in the final of 74kg and not exceeding 80kg category taekwondo event, at the 35th National Games, in Kerala, on Thursday.
Akshai M from Kerala and Harpreet Singh from Punjab secured the bronze medals.
Adv. RD Mangueshkar, President of Taekwondo Association of Goa was ecstatic on the creditable performance put up by the athletes. “A total of eight athletes (men) took part and the performance of our team was excellent against stronger opposition such as of the Services. However, Anand won Goa’s first gold by defeating Services’ Vipin in the final of the over 74kg and not exceeding 80kg category. “
Taekwondo secured a total of six medals for Goa with two silver medals from Saravana Pandiarajan in the over 58kg and not exceeding 63kg event and in the over 87kg category through Vivek Kumar.
The other three bronze for Goa came through Khalid Mulla (over 80kg and not exceeding 87kg), Sagar Palconda (over 63kg and not exceeding 68kg) and Dingku Laishram (over 68kg and not exceeding 74kg) categories.
“We could have won another two gold medals but had to settle for the silver as Saravana Pandiarajan and Vivek Kumar went down in the tie-breaker to their respective opponents in their respective categories,” added Adv. RD Mangueshkar from Kerala.
Meanwhile, Goa men’s relay team qualified for the final, scheduled for Friday, at 4.30 p.m.
