Karnataka continued to top the medal tally with 30 gold, 11 silver and 15 bronze, followed by Services with 28 gold, 12 silver and as many bronze
Indian Navy's Niraj Kumar hogged the limelight by upstaging Olympic medallist Swapnil Kusale in shooting before Deepika Kumari and 18-year-old Juyel Sarkar caused a flutter by emerging champions in their respective women's and men's archery competitions at the 38th National Games in Dehradun on Thursday. (More Sports News)
Later in the day, star pugilists Lovlina Borgohain and Shiva Thapa also won their respective bouts in boxing.
Karnataka, however, continued to top the medal tally with 30 gold, 11 silver and 15 bronze, followed by Services with 28 gold, 12 silver and as many bronze.
Moving from fourth to third place was Maharashtra with 19 gold, 36 silver and 33 bronze.
Niraj began the day on a rousing note as he stunned Paris Games bronze medallist Swapnil and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar to win gold in the men's 50-metre rifle 3 positions.
Representing Services Sports Control Board (SSCB), the 25-year-old Niraj, who is no stranger to winning medals in top competitions, shot a remarkable score of 464.1 to secure the top spot.
Madhya Pradesh바카라™s Aishwary secured the silver with a score of 462.4, while Maharashtra's Swapnil, who made history as the first Indian shooter to win an Olympic medal in this event with his bronze in Paris last year, settled for third place with 447.7.
Meanwhile, in the 10-metre air pistol mixed team event, Haryana's Suruchi Singh and Parmod defeated Rajasthan's Anjali Shekhawat and Umesh Choudhary 17-7 to clinch the gold medal.
The bronze went to the Maharashtra's Rahi Sarnobat and Pranav Arvind Patil after the pair crushed Uttarakhand's Abhinav Deshwal and Yashasvi Joshi 17-3.
In archery, emerging West Bengal archer Juyel Sarkar stunned veteran Tarundeep Rai, a four-time Olympian, to emerge the recurve champion while Deepika Kumari bagged the women's gold.
Jharkhand and Maharashtra clinched two gold each, while West Bengal won one on the sixth and penultimate day of archery competitions.
The highly-decorated Deepika, who reached the quarterfinals in the women's event in the Paris Olympics, clinched two gold -- one each in the individual and team event.
The 18-year-old Juyel, who hails from Malda and trains at the Jhargram Archery Academy, beat the 40-year-old Rai of Sikkim 6-2 in the semifinals, before bagging the top honours with a 6-4 win over Indra Chand Indra of Services in the summit clash.
Rai, a 2010 Asian Games silver medallist, however earned a bronze, defeating Rahul of Services 6-2 in the third-place playoff.
The 30-year-old Deepika had to work hard to beat Ankita of Bihar 6-4 and earn the gold for Jharkhand, while her statemate Komalika Boro bagged bronze.
Jharkhand's women's team of Deepika, Komalika, Ankita Bhakat and Tamanna Verma could not weave its magic, losing to Maharashtra in 0-6 in a lopsided final. Haryana bagged the women's team bronze.
Jharkhand's men's recurve team of Goldi Mishra, Shrey Bhardwaj, Vishnu Choudhary and Gurucharan Besra pipped Uttar Pradesh 5-4 in a gripping final to claim the gold. Services settled for the bronze.
Maharashtra's Gajanan Babrekar and Gatha Anandrao Khadake won gold in the recurve mixed team event.
On expected lines, Olympic bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain and six-time Asian champion Shiva Thapa led the way with commanding wins in their respective boxing bouts.
In the men's light welterweight (63.5kg) division, Assam's Shiva Thapa demonstrated his experience to outclass Maharashtra's Harivansh Tiwari in an intense contest, while in the women's middleweight (75kg) division, Lovlina, also from Assam, brought all her experience into play to beat Nagaland's Renu.
SD Prajwal Dev won both his singles and doubles matches against Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) to steer top seeds Karnataka to the final of the tennis event.
Karnataka, the reigning champions, will take on second seeds Tamil Nadu in the gold medal match on Friday.
Tamil Nadu overcame a formidable Maharashtra 2-1 in the other semifinal.
Niki Poonacha played the first match, losing 4-6, 6-1, 1-6 to Services' Rishab Agarwal.
It was then left to the experienced Prajwal Dev to keep Karnataka's hopes alive. The 28-year-old, despite suffering mid-match blues against Ishaque Iqbal, came good when it mattered the most.
He played solidly to come through 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to take the match to the decisive doubles rubber.
After a break, Prajwal teamed up with Niki, with whom he had won a Challenger doubles title two year ago, to defeat Faisal Qamar and Rishab Agarwal 6-3 6-4 and storm into the final.
In Pauri, Meghalaya's Vikas Rana and Madhya Pradesh's Karishma Diwan delivered outstanding performances to claim victory in their respective canoe extreme slalom competitions.
The event was held on the Ganga river at Phoolchatti in Pauri district.
In the men's category, Rana outperformed his competitors to secure the first position.
Uttarakhand's Amit Thapa finished second, while Services' Naveen Kumar claimed third place.
Karishma dominated the women's event with a stellar performance, securing the top spot. Meghalaya's Elizabeth Vincent finished second, while Arunachal Pradesh's Devi claimed third place.
Madhya Pradesh (fourth) and Haryana (fifth) rounded off the top five in the pecking order.