JOIN USMondal clinches fine double
Bengal’s Swadesh Mondal was the talk of the town on day two of the 33rd Glenmark Sub-junior Aquatics Championships here on Thursday.
Two events in the span of 20 minutes didn’t seem to bother the 12-year-old as he dished out remarkable performances to clinch the top spot in both the races in record time on a day that saw four new national marks being set.
Taking to the pool for the 200M individual medley (Group III) final, Swadesh trailed the promising Shoan Ganguly of Karnataka in the initial 50 meters. But that didn’t seem to matter much as he was quick to make up for the lost time on the first turn and then never looked like in danger of losing the lead.
Swadesh won his first gold of the day with a timing of 2:26.73, obliterating the previous mark of 2:29.71 set in 2014 by Sanskar Tokas of Maharashtra. Gujarat’s Aryan Nehra was a surprise silver medalist in 2:30.97, with Ganguly settling for a bronze in 2:32.62.
While in his first race he looked a little unsure of his chances at the start, there were no such doubts in the one that followed as the trainee at the Sport Authority of India’s SPM swimming complex in New Delhi was in total control of the 100M breaststroke final.
Starting with Karnataka’s Kalp S Bohra in the adjacent lane, Swadesh had to be on top of his game from the beginning. And he did just that as his quick movements and fast push saw him win the gold in 1:16.24, fractions better than the previous national mark that was in the name of Haryana’s Sahil Hooda at 1:16.67, set in 2014. Kalp finished with the silver medal in 1:19.89 and it was Delhi’s KN Metei who took the bronze in 1:20.74.
“Two races back-to-back are always hard, but I was determined to give my best,” said an elated Mondal. “I was expecting the records too as I had bettered the marks at the State meet earlier. But the race was a little hard. I had a stiff neck and that held me back for a while,” he added.
The other two records of the day came from the Hiren Shagolsem of Manipur and Maharashtra’s Vedika Amin.
Shagolsem continued his fine form into the second day of the meet to clinch the 50M freestyle (Group II) gold in 26.47 seconds, fractions better than the previous national mark of 26.56 seconds set by Karnataka’s Sanjay CJ in 2014.
Vedika, meanwhile, was triumphant in the Group III, 100M breaststroke final. She won the yellow metal in 1:21.03, abolishing the previous record set in 2013 by Vania Kapoor of Karnataka at 1:21.96.
DH News Service
Results: Boys: Group III: 50M freestyle: Hiren Shagolsem (Man) 26.47 (NMR, Old: 26.56, Sanjay CJ, Kar, 2014) 1; Rajdeep Gogoi (Assam) 27.05, 2; Abhigyan Madhurjja Dutta (Assam) 27.22, 3.
100M breaststroke: Swadesh Mondal (Bengal) 1:16.24 (NMR; Old: 1:16.67, Sahil Hooda, Har, 2014) 1; Kalp S Bohra (Kar) 1:19.89, 2; KN Metei (Delhi) 1:20.74, 3.
200M individual medley: Swadesh Mondal (Bengal) 2:26.73 (NMR, Old: 2:29.71, Sanskar Tokas, Delhi, 2014) 1; Aryan Nehra (Guj) 2:30.97, 2; Shoan Ganguly (Kar) 2:32.62, 3.
Group IV: 50M butterfly: Vidith S Shankar (Kar) 33.21, 1; Pranjal Patra (Bengal) 33.40, 2; Robin Sen (Delhi) 33.54, 3.
4x50M medley relay: Karnataka 2:25.96, 1; Bengal 2:28.51, 2; Assam 2:29.99, 3.
Girls: Group III: 50M freestyle: Liyana Fathima Umer (Ker) 29.85, 1; Seeya Bijlani (Mah) 30.31, 2; Mithika K Karapurkar (Goa) 30.38, 3.
100M breaststroke: Vedika Amin (Mah) 1:21.03 (NMR; Old: 1:21.96, Vania Kapoor, Kar, 2013) 1; Adithi Balaji (Pdy) 1:23.18, 2; Arushi Manujnath (Kar) 1:24.12, 3.
200M individual medley: Jedidah A (Kar) 2:45.08, 1; Adya Nayak (Kar) 2:45.59, 2; Seeya Bijlani (Mah) 2:46.10, 3.
Group IV: 50M butterfly: Nitya Khinvasara (Mah) 35.12, 1; Jharna Kashyap (Assam) 36.08, 2; Cynthia Choudhury (Ben) 36.25, 3.
4x50M medley relay: Maharashtra 2:32.57, 1; Assam 2:33.01, 2; Tamil Nadu 2:33.74, 3.
Diving: Boys: Group I: 1M Spring Board: Sandip Dass (Services) 401.15, 1; Surajit Rajbanshi (Services) 393.4, 2; Heman London Singh (Kar) 356.8, 3.
Group II: High board: N Willson Singh (Services) 279.1, 1; Ankit Punia (UP) 253.8, 2; Shivraj Patil (Mah) 240.2, 3.
Group III: 3M spring board: Satishkumar Prajapati (Services) 243.75, 1; Oum Awasthi (Mah) 217.05, 2; Utkarsh Joshi (MP) 195.45, 3.
Girls: Group I: 1M spring board: Simran Rajani (Mah) 257.9, 1; Medhali Redkar (Mah) 219.35, 2; Aysha (Del) 209.3, 3.
Group II: high board: Moupriya Mitra (WB) 180.25, 1; Bilwa Giram (Mah) 149.1, 2; Ashna Chevli (Guj) 135.45, 3.
Group III: 3M spring board: Riya Mustare (Mah) 137.5, 1; Megan de Almeida (Goa) 133.2, 2; M Ishpreet Kaur (MP) 125.2, 3.