The Indian Army began their title defense in a commanding fashion, clinching four out of 12 medals available at the Khelo India Winter Games 2025 Gulmarg leg on Day 1.
Indian Army won two gold, as many silver and three bronze medals ahead of Himachal Pradesh’s tally of one gold, one silver and one bronze medal.
Meanwhile, Jammu & Kashmir, the hosts, claimed one gold and a silver in the dramatic opening of Khelo India Winter Games second leg.
The Indian Army dominated the Nordic skiing men’s 10km event, capturing all the three medals.
Sunny Singh won gold, Manjeet took home silver, and Raj Din settled for bronze.
Karnataka’s Bhavani Thekkada clinched the gold with a timing of 17:43.47 in the Nordic skiing women’s event. She is the only athlete to complete a hat-trick of gold medals in Gulmarg.
Selma Soreng and Kusum Rana, representing ITBP, settled for silver and bronze respectively.
Rajeshwar Singh led the charge for the Indian Army clinching gold with a time of 15 minutes 13.40 seconds in ski mountairneering men’s sprint event while Siddharth Gadekar won Maharashtra’s only medal and Uttarakhand’s Mayank Dimri settled for the bronze.
Himachal Pradesh’s Yogesh Kumar took home the gold, followed by Army duo of Jigmet Rafastan (silver) and Bakir Hussain (bronze) completing a 2-3 podium finish in the alpine skiing men’s slalom event.
local favourites Mehrajuddin Khan and Zubair Ahmad Lone completed a 1-2 finish for the hosts followed by Army’s Vivek Rana in the men’s slalom event in snowboarding.
Uttarakhand’s Menka Gunjiyal dominated the race to pocket gold with an impressive timing of 24:44.90. Himachal Pradesh pair of Sakshi Thakur and Natasha Mahar took the silver and bronze medals respectively in the women’s slalom of snowboarding discipline.