Hosts Maharashtra marched ahead of the rest as they took their gold tally to 32 while Delhi, despite the efforts of their judokas and swimmers, were left eight behind at the end of Friday as the Khelo India Youth Games went into the first weekend.
Maharashtra are close to a century with 32 gold, 24 silver and 35 bronze medals -- total of 91, while Delhi with 24 gold, 17 silver and 20 bronze are second.
Lying in the third spot is Haryana with 18 gold, 20 silver and 26 bronze medals, a media release issued here said.
Hosts Maharashtra bagged seven gold from athletics, three each from swimming and wrestling besides two each from judo and weightlifting.
Delhi had a fine day at the pool with four gold and another three from judoka.
In shooting, there was a big upset, as Telanganas Dhanush Srikant upstaged two-time Junior World Cup bronze medallist Punjabs Arjun Babuta in the mens under-21 10m air rifle final.
Even though Maharashtra and Delhi were bagging medals in the race to the top, Balakumar Nithin (Tamil Nadu) set the KIYG track alight with a personal best-equalling 100m dash in the boys Under-21 category.
Meanwhile, Delhi girl Prachi Tokas surprisedfavourite Khushi Dineshof Karnataka in the girls U-17 Freestyle event, to win her second successive goldasDelhi swimmersdominated the pool.
Wrestling powerhouse Haryana continued their domination on the third day of the Games.
Manipur maintained their reputation in weightlifting picking two gold, but hosts Maharashtra picked as many to give them a strong competition.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
