World class infrastructure and high cash awards presented to sportspersons notwithstanding, Chandigarh finished 21st among 33 states that participated in the National Games, which concluded in Uttarakhand today.

The Chandigarh Olympic Association (COA), which is defunct in terms of conducting sporting activities for nearly two decades now, had claimed to have fielded a strong 230-member contingent for the National Games. However, the city bagged a total of 19 medals, including four gold, six silver and nine bronze, at the games. Notably, a majority of the medals were won in individual sport. This makes one wonder if the city was moving in the right direction or not.

The association had sent teams of archery, athletics, boxing, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, judo, kayaking and canoeing, netball, rowing, rafting, shooting, squash, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, wushu and yogasana.

According to the National Games official records, the city won five medals (two silver, three bronze) in boxing, four in wrestling (one silver, three bronze), two in taekwondo (one gold, one silver), a gold and bronze in judo, a silver and bronze in wushu, one gold medal in weightlifting, another in yogasana, a silver in kabaddi and a bronze in fencing.

In total, the city contingent bagged medals in nine disciplines. The city finished behind teams like Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Manipur, but fared better than Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Goa.

The COA had held a glittering send-off ceremony for the teams on January 25, which was attended by all top officials of the association. Officials from the UT Sports Department were also present on the occasion.

The teams were sent in a situation when the COA had been fighting a legal battle, while the Sports Department had placed sanctions on the body for not submitting utilisation certificates for received grants.

In the 2023 Goa National Games, the local contingent had finished 22nd among 35 teams by winning 16 medals (five gold, seven silver and four bronze). The city won a bronze in kabaddi, two gold medals in weightlifting, a silver each in boxing, gymnastics and golf, a gold and silver in taekwondo, and a bronze each in wushu, judo and sqay martial arts.

The Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) topped the medal tally for the fifth time in the last six games, with a haul of 121 medals (68 gold, 26 silver, 27 bronze). At 198 (54 gold, 71 silver, 73 bronze), Maharashtra won more medals than Services but slipped to second spot on account of lesser gold medals. Similarly, Haryana got more medals (153) than Services. The haul included 48 gold, 47 silver and 58 bronze, but the state had to content with the third place. Punjab finished ninth with a total of 66 medals (15 gold, 20 silver, 31 bronze), while the hosts Uttarakhand stood a creditable seventh with a total of 103 medals, including 24 gold, 35 silver and 44 bronze.