Gulmarg, Feb 25: Army defended their Khelo India Winter Games team championship title winning nine gold medals overall, eight in the Gulmarg edition here.
With four golds on the final day of the competition on Wednesday, Himachal Pradesh ended runners-up. The closing ceremony of KIWG-2026, hosted by the J&K Sports Council and managed by the Sports Authority of India will be held on Thursday at the Golf Course here.
The first leg of KIWG 2026 was held in Ladakh from January 20-26. On a sunny Day 3 of KIWG 2026, Army and Himachal Pradesh won equal number of four golds each while hosts J&K clinched their first gold and veteran skier Bhavani Thekkada Nanjunda of Karnataka, who won a hattrick of gold medals in KIWG 2025, finished with a top of the podium finish in the Nordic women’s sprint across 1.5 kilometres.
Bhavani has participated in all six editions of the Khelo India Winter Games. Zubaid Ahmad Lone brought cheer to J&K by winning the men’s giant slalom race in the snowboarding competition.
The burly Zubaid warded off a stiff challenge from Army’s Vivek Rana. J&K finished with a gold and a silver in KIWG 2026 and a 10th position in the medal standings.
While Armyman Mayank Panwar was the slalom man of the Games with a pair of gold medals, Army showed complete domination in the Nordic (cross-country) events. In the gruelling 15 km Nordic skiing race, Mohammad Ali (34:21.49 secs) led an Army 1-2-3 with Padma Namgail (34:36.74 secs) winning silver and Sunny Singh (35:16.83 secs)finishing with a bronze.
In KIWG 2026, there were three skiers who finished with double gold medals. CRPF’s Kajal Kumari Rai was on Wednesday joined by Panwar and Himachal Pradesh’s Preeti Thakur, who topped in both the slalom and giant slalom races in snowboarding.
