Young Dally Bishnoi wins women's K1 gold in KIWSF as MP athletes make a big impression

Srinagar, Aug 22 (PTI) At just 17 years of age, kayaker Dally Bishnoi has stopped keeping track of the number of medals she has won, such has been the teenager's prolific run at the national level.

Dally, a product of Water Sports Academy of Excellence in Bhopal, won the women's kayaking 500m (K1) gold as Madhya Pradesh made a clean sweep of all four gold medals at stake on day two of the Khelo India Water Sports Festival on Friday.

Dally won in a time of 2:11.093 seconds, pushing Uttarakhand's Pukhrambam Roji Devi (2:14.068) and Kerala's Nikita Sarkar (2:22.154) to second and third spots respectively.

Madhya Pradesh's 14-year-old Niharika Singh and Chandrakala Kushwaha clinched the women's kayaking 500m (K2) gold in 02:04.642 seconds, while the men's canoeing (C2) team from the state, comprising Sudhir Kumar and Prince Goswami, won in 1:50.943 seconds.

Madhya Pradesh's men's kayaking (K2) team of Aditya Singh and Manjeet also brought more glory to the state by winning gold in 1:41.595 seconds.

Dally, who hails from Handia in Harda district of Madhya Pradesh, took up the sport after drawing inspiration from her former national-level canoeist brother.

She has won two silver medals at the National Games in Uttarakhand and has more than a dozen gold and a similar number of silver and bronze in the junior and senior category at the national championships.

The 12th standard arts student has now set her sights on qualifying for the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya in Japan, but by her own admission she will have to work extremely hard to realise her dream.

"I am a junior playing at the senior level," she said with a smile.

"I have played at the Nationals in both the junior and senior category and won lots of gold medals. During the trials (for KIWSF), I stood first position in K1 and K4, so I am competing in both the events here.

"I was inspired by my brother, a former national canoeist. I have been at the MP Centre of Excellence for three years now and it has given me an opportunity to pursue a sport that is so expensive," the teenager, who competes in K1, K2 and K4 events, said.

She has also competed in the Junior Asian Championships twice and managed to reach the final on both occasions.

"My parent say education is equally important. So, I balance sports and academics training in the morning and evening. The school is very close to the high-performance centre, so I am able to manage both." Her father, a farmer, moved from Handia to Bhopal so that Dally could pursue water sports.

"I will attend next month's Asian Games trials, which will probably be held in Bhopal or Uttarakhand. I have to improve my timings a lot. Let's see how things go," said the kayaker.

Another teenager, Niharika Singh, partnering Chandrakala Kushwaha, won the women's K2 event. It was the 14-year-old Niharika's maiden senior medal and she looked elated with the success.

Hailing from Bhopal, Niharika, a swimmer-turned-kayaker, has won three national sub-junior gold and took up the sport after her swimming coach asked her to switch to water sports events. PTI AM AM PDS PDS