Bhubaneswar, Feb 27 (PTI) Savitribai Phule Pune University consolidated their position at the top by claiming three gold medals at the inaugural Khelo India University Games here on Thursday.

Mahesh Datta Asawale and Prajkta Ravindra Khalkar won gold in weightlifting competition, while Jyotiba Bajrang Atkale bagged a yellow metal in wrestling.

Panjab University (Chandigarh) and Jain University (Bengaluru) remained on eight gold medals each, while with 13 golds, Pune University surged ahead.

Guru Nanak Dev University (Amritsar) and University of Mumbai complete the top five on the charts.

Mahesh Asawale, who won the All-India Inter-University Championships in Mohali last December with total lifts of 258kg, showed an improvement here. He lifted 123kg in snatch and 143 in clean and jerk for a total of 266kg. He returned to the sport in September last year after a year-long suspension for a doping violation.

Juturi Koteswara Rao (Krishna University) and Mithlesh Sonkar (Hemchand Yadav University) claimed the silver and bronze medals respectively with total lifts of 243kg and 238kg.

Manoja Kumar Sahu (Berhampur University), a silver medal winner in the boys Under-21 73kg class in the Khelo India Youth Games in Guwahati last month, also improved on his own mark. He lifted a total of 267kg here, compared to 264kg in Guwahati, to claim the gold ahead of Manish Kumar (Panjab University) and Lovepreet Singh (Punjabi University).

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