Karnataka's dominance in the senior category remained unchallenged as they bagged 24 gold, 22 silver and 13 bronze medals.
There was no stopping defending champions Karnataka from retaining their overall title even as Karnataka's Rehan Poncha and Police's Richa Mishra took the men's and women's best swimmers award after the conclusion of the LIC 61st Senior National Aquatic Championships here at the Campal swimming pool.
Karnataka's dominance in the senior category remained unchallenged as they bagged 24 gold, 22 silver and 13 bronze medals. The nearest anyone could get to Karnataka's tally was Police with 10 gold, three silver and six bronze medals.
Poncha once again proved his mettle in this edition, with a rich haul of six gold and two silver medals creating four new Indian best timings in the process.
On Sunday, the last of the gold medals for Poncha came in the 200 metres individual medley event. He did not have much competition and had to push himself in his quest for better timings. The competition brewing was behind Poncha with Maharashtra's Aditya Sangvekar and Railways swimmer Akbar Ali Mir fighting it out for the second spot. Sangvekar managed to ward off the challenge from Mir and took the silver, leaving the bronze for the latter. Poncha won in two minutes, 8.80 seconds, which was better than the National record of 2:09.40 which he timed at the Asian Age Group swimming event in Jakarta recently.
"It was a superb finish to a great event," Poncha said later. "I could not have expected anything better because I am coming to the Nationals after a rest of only two weeks."
Richa dazzles Richa Mishra too capped a great performance with a gold medal in the women's 200M individual medley. She bagged a total of five individual gold medals in the championship.
However, she did not have it as easy as Poncha did and had to ward off a stiff challenge from Karnataka's Pooja R Alva in the women's 200M individual medley. The two went neck and neck for the first 100 metres. Between the 100 and 150-metres, Mishra began to pull away and romped home in 2: 26.38.
Karnataka's Shikha Tandon clinched five individual and two relay gold medals in the event. On the last day, she took the women's 50M freestyle event in a time of 26.92 seconds.
Tamil Nadu's MB Balakrishnan bagged his first gold medal at the National level in the 100M backstroke event and also bettered the National record. He won in 1:00.62, while the old record was 1:00.73 and was held by Police's Arjun Muralidharan from 2006.
The Services' men's team bettered the National mark in the 4x100M medley relay.
The Railways men retained their water polo title, while the women's Police team also triumphed. The Karnataka women lost their third place play-off match against Kerala 0-2.
Results: Men: 50M freestyle: TA Sujith (Services, 23.95 seconds) 1; Sandeep NA (Kar, 24.98) 2; Saiju Joseph (Services, 25.24) 3.100M backstroke: MB Balakrishnan (TN, 1:00.62 minutes) 1; Praveen Tokas (Rlys, 1:00.78) 2; Sandeep NA (Kar, 1:01.34) 3. (NR. Old record: 1:00.73 (Arjun Muralidharan, Police, 2006). 200M individual medley: Rehan Poncha (Kar, 2:08.80 minutes) 1; Aditya Sangvekar (Mah, 2:14.76) 2; Akbar Ali Mir (Rlys, 2:16.73) 3. NR. Old record: 2:09.40 (Rehan Poncha, 2007); 4x100M medley relay: Services (4:04.85 minutes) 1; Karnataka (4:05.06) 2; Railways (4:08.06) 3. NR. Old record: 4:06.46 (Police, 2004).
