Panjab University, Chandigarh (PUC), regained their overall champions crown after a gap of one edition as despite a clean sweep in fencing, Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, fell short on the final day of competitions at the Khelo Indian University Games (KIUG).

National Games champion Yash Ghangas was the other star attraction on the final day, thrilling all at the B.B.D. University grounds in Lucknow, to pick up the gold for Chaudhary Bansi Lal University (CBLU) in the men’s 100+kg category in judo.

The other four golds on the final day went to Mumbai University (judo women’s 78+kg), Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) who won the men’s group traditional yogasana gold at the SAC hall of the Indian Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU) campus in Varanasi and Chandigarh University (CU) and Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak, who picked up the two golds in weightlifting at the G.B. University in Greater Noida.

PUC therefore finished with an overall tally of 69 medals including 26 gold, 17 silver and 26 bronze medals. GNDU amassed 24 gold, 27 silver and 17 bronze medals to finish second and in the top three for the first time.

Jain University, Karnataka, last time’s champions, were third with 16 gold, 10 silver and six bronze medals.

Jain, however, will have the solace of having the most successful male and female athletes of the KIUG 2022 UP. Both of them belong to swimming where Siva Sridhar topped the men’s section with a total of 11 medals including eight golds while Shrungi Bandekar won nine medals in the women’s section including five golds. As many as 131 of the 203 universities who finally participated, medalled at the Games, where at least 11 new records were created over 12 competition days.

The Games were held across nine venues in four cities of UP namely Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Gautambuddh Nagar.