Jharkhand’s Y Hemjit Meitei after winning his gold at the aquatic stadium in Hotwar on Wednesday. (Prashant Mitra)

Ranchi, Feb. 16: It was a mixed bag of news for the home team on Day Four of the National Games.

While a borrowed diver clinched the seventh gold for Jharkhand, the state’s badminton teams made unceremonious exit as early as the quarter-final. With 29 medals, Jharkhand now ranks ninth in the Games charts.

Y. Hemjit Meitei, a Manipuri who has donned Jharkhand colours, won gold in the three-metre springboard dive with 284.35 points. Though it was well below the meet record of 331.70 points, scored by the Services in 2007, Hemjit overcame challenges from Maharashtra’s T. Hari Prasad, who notched 277.20 points.

The happiness was shortlived for the host team, as its badminton boys — Safi Akram and Amar Jyoti Bose — lost their singles to Tamil Nadu. In the women’s section, Jharkhand’s Hosana Topno in the first singles and Hosana and Mrinalini in the doubles lost against Bengal.

At Tikait Umrao Shooting Range, state players once again cut a sorry figure. This wasn’t entirely unexpected as they had been starved of basic facilities. Among women, Sanchita Mishra put up a courageous performance in the 50m rifle prone, finishing 28 out of 36. The gold went to Maharashtra’s Tejaswini Sawant, the world champion in this event.

In the men’s events, the likes of Shailesh Kumar, Diwakar Singh and Rajiv Ranjan participated in trap shooting, but were eliminated in the first round. The trap gold was won by Punjab’s Birendeep Sodhi, with a final score of 138, just two points ahead of state mate Manavjit S. Sandhu.

Samaresh Jung opened the account for Himachal Pradesh, winning the 25m centre fire pistol title.

The much-awaited athletics events began at Birsa Munda stadium from today. Uttar Pradesh’s Suresh Kumar Patel scorched the tracks winning the 10,000 metre gold followed by Haryana’s Sunil and Karnataka’s Sridhar Bajantari.

Unfortunately, Jharkhand’s Kashinath Aswale, the meet record holder, and Sridhar Pariya fell far behind.

Kavita Raut of Maharashtra clocked 34:28.26, a new record for women, to clinch gold in the 10,000 metre.

Team Manipur, leading the Games, added double gold to its medal tally with sepak takraw wins in Dhanbad. While the men beat Delhi 2-0, the women defeated Assam 2-0.

The day also saw four meet records in the swimming pool.