Shillong: Assam’s golfers were dominant on the Shillong Golf Course, known around the world as the ‘Gleneagles of the East‘, winning five gold medals at the 2nd North East Olympic Games 2022.
The golf championship that began on November 10 concluded on Sunday. Golfers from northeastern states played 18-hole-rounds a day over a four-day tournament at the challenging but beautiful course.
Apart from the five gold medals in golf, Assam won two silver and bronze medals. Hosts Meghalaya were the second-best performing state with one gold, six silvers and four bronzes.
Manipur snatched one gold and two bronze medals, while Arunachal Pradesh claimed one gold.
Assam took the team gold medal for the best four scorecards with the team of Snigdha Goswami, Jakir Hussain, Biki Datta, and Kalyan Sahul. Meghalaya were the silver medallists. Manipur took the bronze.
The overall individual gold was bagged by Assam’s brilliant Snigdha Goswami, who was ahead of Assam’s Hussain and Meghalaya’s KI Singh.
In the individual category, Meghalaya’s sole gold medal was won in the amateur division as the state’s youngest golfer at the tournament, Jason Passah. Passah took up golfing just two years ago after coming back home to Meghalaya during the Covid-19 pandemic. The second place went to Biki Datta of Assam and Jonathan Iawphniaw of Meghalaya.
Goswami bagged the gold in the ladies’ event, with Meghalaya claiming silver and bronze through Jyoti Agarwal and Pooja Goenka respectively.
Keisham Indrajit Singh of Manipur won the Super Senior event ahead of Hector Marwein of Meghalaya and Nagesh Singh of Assam.
Arunachal’s lone gold came through Col Hemonto Panging, who won the senior category ahead of Benu Malakar of Meghalaya and Lhunkhotang Hangsing of Manipur.
Hussain won the gold for Assam in the Mid-Amateur category, while Meghalaya locked in the silver and bronze through Singh and Gaurav Bajaj.
The professional category was won by Deben Bhumij of Assam, with Anil Ram of Meghalaya coming in second and Deepraj Chetia of Assam, third.
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