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Early Mornings, Long Drives and 23 Medals: Inside Bennett's Big Weekend at Mandi

23 medals, 7 MVPs, 3 days

Published:October 29, 2026 at 11:33 PM3 min read
Early Mornings, Long Drives and 23 Medals: Inside Bennett's Big Weekend at Mandi
Correspondents: Thakur Ratnpriya Singh

Mandi in October is crisp air, mountain views and, for three days, a lot of sporting
intensity. IIT Mandi's annual sports fest, Rann Neeti, brought athletes from across the country together. Bennett University's squad came home with 23 medals and 7 Most Valuable Player honours.

If Rann Neeti had a main character, it was the swimming pool. Bennett's swimmers took home the title of Overall Aquatics Champions with 11 golds, 4 silvers and a bronze. At the front of the pack were Aditya Kumar (B.Tech CSE, 2025-29) and Ayan Yadav (BBA, 2026-29). Both were named MVP in swimming, and both collected five gold medals each. Ayan is a first-year, so he picked up five golds before most people have figured out where the good canteen is.

Then there's Pranjal Bisht (B.Tech CSE, 2024-28), who didn't just win gold in bodybuilding. He walked away with
the Mr. Rann Neeti title and the MVP award, with a mention for "extraordinary conditioning." That takes months of early mornings, strict meals and gym sessions nobody applauds. Mandi was the day the applause finally showed up.

The racket and team sports added plenty more to the tally; Aarya Giri (B.Tech CSE, 2025-29) won dual MVP honours, with gold in table tennis and gold plus bronze in lawn tennis. Niyaz was named MVP in men's lawn tennis with a gold. Girls' table tennis took gold, and girls' lawn tennis returned with a gold and a bronze. Men's basketball took gold. Men's volleyball took bronze.

The Bennett Online students were part of this story too. Shrey Sharma (MBA Online, 2026-28) led the basketball
team to its gold with sharp tactics and calm leadership on the court. Hardik Sharma (MBA Online, 2026-28) helped the volleyball side to a bronze. Whether you attend classes on campus or on a laptop, you can still represent your university on the court.

Medal tallies are easy to read and hard to earn. Each number here is someone who trained when it was inconvenient, travelled to the hills and played through nerves. It is also the captains, the coaches and the teammates cheering from the sidelines. The university has congratulated everyone involved for setting "a new benchmark," and it's hard to argue.

Rann Neeti 2026 is over, but the bar it set for next year is a high one.



This is written by Thakur Ratnpriya Singh. She is a 2nd year Mass Communication Student who is an aspiring Sports Journalist.



































Tags
#bennett#rann neeti#mandi#Sports#Swimming#Medals

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