<p>Saurabh Sangvekar has been tipped to break all barriers in long distance swimming in the Indian scenario. The Karnataka lad affirmed that belief on Wednesday with a National record-breaking swim in the 800M freestyle at the 65th Senior Aquatic championships which began at the Veer Budhu Bhagat Aquatic Centre here on Wednesday.<br /><br />It was Thane-born Sangvekar’s first title at the senior level competition. Sangvekar, who led from the start to the finish, touched the wall in eight minutes 12.57 seconds, a good 21 seconds ahead of his nearest rival and seasoned campaigner Mander A Divase. “My coach said I can improve my timing after the Junior Nationals. Keeping that in my mind, I was training hard,” said Sangvekar, who trains under National coach Pradeep Kumar.<br /><br />The 17-year-old Sangvekar, who trains at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre in Bangalore, made full use of perfect conditions and a top quality 10-lane pool, built for the National Games held in February, to outclass his opponents en route to the new National mark. Once Saurabh turned the 400M-mark at 4:03.00 he shifted to top gear before cruising home for his maiden Senior gold.<br /><br />In the process, the Junior National champion erased his own mark of 8:18.40, slicing almost six seconds from the old time, set last month at the Asian Age Group championships in Jakarta.<br /><br />Though, Sangvekar benefitted from the absence of his State-mate Gagan AP -- who decided to opt out of the first few days of the meet due to exams — it hardly takes the sheen away from the youngster’s achievement. But the real test for Sangvekar will be on Sunday when Gagan returns for the 1500M freestyle event.<br /><br />In the last event of the day, Karnataka women’s 4x100M medley relay team set new meet record. The quartet of Kshipra Mahajan, Bhoomi R Motwani, Pooja R Alva and Surabhi Tipre stopped the clock in 4:36.37 seconds for the crown, erasing the previous record mark of 4:39.62 created by the State team at Thiruvananthapuram in 2009. <br /><br />Earlier, Rehan Poncha got off to a winning start, clocking 2:07.85 seconds in the men’s 200M backstroke, beating team-mate Rohit R Havaldar for the gold. Rohit claimed silver in 2:08.17. <br /><br />Pooja R Alva completed the tally as she triumphed by a razor-thin margin of 0.3 seconds, posting 29.56 seconds to take home the one-lap butterfly title.<br /><br />RSPB swimmers had a field day on Wednesday with Sandeep Sejwal (200 breaststroke, 2:16.37) and their men’s 4x100M medley relay team (3:56.06) going under the existing meet records.<br /><br />Karnataka won four gold, two silver and three bronze medals to lead the table while RSPB surprised everyone by shooting to second place (3 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze). <br /><br />In the water polo competitions, riding on a brace each from Shruti MS and Shwetha SS, Karnataka women thrashed Delhi 6-0. State men went down to SSCB 1-9.<br /><br />Results: Men: 800M freestyle: Saurabh Sangvekar (Kar) 8:12.57 seconds, 1. National Record (Old: 8:18.00, Saurabh Sangvekar, Asian Age Group championship, Jakarta, 2011; New Meet Record; Old: 8:23.08, Mandar A Divase, Police, 2009); Mandar A Divase (Pol) 8:34.47, 2; Mervyn Chen (RSPB) 8:38.87, 3.<br /><br />200M backstroke: Rehan Poncha (Kar) 2:07.85, 1; Rohit R Havaldar (Kar) 2:08.17, 2; Praveen Tokas (RSPB) 2:13.38, 3.<br /><br />200M breaststroke: Sandeep Sejwal (RSPB) 2:16.37, 1. New Meet Record (Old: 2:17.92, Sandeep Sejwal, RSPB, 2010); Anoop Augustine (RSPB) 2:26.98, 2; Arvind M (Kar) 2:30.66, 3.<br /><br />50M butterfly: Sarma SP Nair (RSPB) 26.13, 1; Arjun Murlidharan (Pol) 26.35, 2; Anshul Kothari (Guj) 26.39, 3. 4x100M medley relay: RSPB (Praveen Tokas, Sandeep Sejwal, Tarun Tokas, Sarma S P Nair) 3:56.06, 1. New Meet Record (Old: 3:56.98, RSPB, 2010); Karnataka (Rehan Poncha, Likhith SP, Aaron D’Souza, Saurabh Sangvekar) 4:01.14, 3; West Bengal (Gopinath Kayal, Aukik Das, Supriya Mondal, Sanu Debnath) 4:27.16, 3.<br /><br />Women: <br />200M backstroke: Arti Ghorpade (Mah) 2:28.59, 1; Ananya Panigrahi (Mah) 2:29.34, 2; Meghana S (Kar) 2:35.79, 3. <br />200M breaststroke: M Raghavi (TN) 2:48.39, 1; Poorva Shetye (Mah) 2:48.57, 2; AV Jayaveena (TN) 2:51.45, 3. <br />50M butterfly: Pooja R Alva (Kar) 29.56, 1; Talasha Prabhu (Goa) 29.86, 2; Fariha Zaman (Kar0 30.16, 3.<br />4x100M medley relay: Karnataka (Kshipra Mahajan, Bhoomi R Motwani, Surabhi Tipre, Pooja R Alva) 4:36.37, 1. NMR (Old: 4:39.62, Karnataka, 2009); Maharashtra (Ananya Panigrahi, Poorva Shetye, Aditi D, Rujuta Bhatt) 4:37.94, 2. BMR; Tamil Nadu (Sherlyn Meghna, AV Jayaveena, Anusha Mehta, VKR Meenakshi) 4:58.12, 3. <br />Water polo: Men: SSCB: 9 (Aneesh 1, Jayakumar 3, James M 2, Sharat 3) bt Karnataka: 1 (Sherin T 1); Police bt Manipur 10-0; Delhi bt Jharkhand 5-1.<br />Women: Karnataka: 6 (Mrudula V 1, Shruti M S 2, Aishwarya M 1, Shwetha S S 2) bt Delhi: 0; Kerala bt Bengal 7-0; Maharashtra bt Manipur 9-0.</p>
<p>Saurabh Sangvekar has been tipped to break all barriers in long distance swimming in the Indian scenario. The Karnataka lad affirmed that belief on Wednesday with a National record-breaking swim in the 800M freestyle at the 65th Senior Aquatic championships which began at the Veer Budhu Bhagat Aquatic Centre here on Wednesday.<br /><br />It was Thane-born Sangvekar’s first title at the senior level competition. Sangvekar, who led from the start to the finish, touched the wall in eight minutes 12.57 seconds, a good 21 seconds ahead of his nearest rival and seasoned campaigner Mander A Divase. “My coach said I can improve my timing after the Junior Nationals. Keeping that in my mind, I was training hard,” said Sangvekar, who trains under National coach Pradeep Kumar.<br /><br />The 17-year-old Sangvekar, who trains at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre in Bangalore, made full use of perfect conditions and a top quality 10-lane pool, built for the National Games held in February, to outclass his opponents en route to the new National mark. Once Saurabh turned the 400M-mark at 4:03.00 he shifted to top gear before cruising home for his maiden Senior gold.<br /><br />In the process, the Junior National champion erased his own mark of 8:18.40, slicing almost six seconds from the old time, set last month at the Asian Age Group championships in Jakarta.<br /><br />Though, Sangvekar benefitted from the absence of his State-mate Gagan AP -- who decided to opt out of the first few days of the meet due to exams — it hardly takes the sheen away from the youngster’s achievement. But the real test for Sangvekar will be on Sunday when Gagan returns for the 1500M freestyle event.<br /><br />In the last event of the day, Karnataka women’s 4x100M medley relay team set new meet record. The quartet of Kshipra Mahajan, Bhoomi R Motwani, Pooja R Alva and Surabhi Tipre stopped the clock in 4:36.37 seconds for the crown, erasing the previous record mark of 4:39.62 created by the State team at Thiruvananthapuram in 2009. <br /><br />Earlier, Rehan Poncha got off to a winning start, clocking 2:07.85 seconds in the men’s 200M backstroke, beating team-mate Rohit R Havaldar for the gold. Rohit claimed silver in 2:08.17. <br /><br />Pooja R Alva completed the tally as she triumphed by a razor-thin margin of 0.3 seconds, posting 29.56 seconds to take home the one-lap butterfly title.<br /><br />RSPB swimmers had a field day on Wednesday with Sandeep Sejwal (200 breaststroke, 2:16.37) and their men’s 4x100M medley relay team (3:56.06) going under the existing meet records.<br /><br />Karnataka won four gold, two silver and three bronze medals to lead the table while RSPB surprised everyone by shooting to second place (3 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze). <br /><br />In the water polo competitions, riding on a brace each from Shruti MS and Shwetha SS, Karnataka women thrashed Delhi 6-0. State men went down to SSCB 1-9.<br /><br />Results: Men: 800M freestyle: Saurabh Sangvekar (Kar) 8:12.57 seconds, 1. National Record (Old: 8:18.00, Saurabh Sangvekar, Asian Age Group championship, Jakarta, 2011; New Meet Record; Old: 8:23.08, Mandar A Divase, Police, 2009); Mandar A Divase (Pol) 8:34.47, 2; Mervyn Chen (RSPB) 8:38.87, 3.<br /><br />200M backstroke: Rehan Poncha (Kar) 2:07.85, 1; Rohit R Havaldar (Kar) 2:08.17, 2; Praveen Tokas (RSPB) 2:13.38, 3.<br /><br />200M breaststroke: Sandeep Sejwal (RSPB) 2:16.37, 1. New Meet Record (Old: 2:17.92, Sandeep Sejwal, RSPB, 2010); Anoop Augustine (RSPB) 2:26.98, 2; Arvind M (Kar) 2:30.66, 3.<br /><br />50M butterfly: Sarma SP Nair (RSPB) 26.13, 1; Arjun Murlidharan (Pol) 26.35, 2; Anshul Kothari (Guj) 26.39, 3. 4x100M medley relay: RSPB (Praveen Tokas, Sandeep Sejwal, Tarun Tokas, Sarma S P Nair) 3:56.06, 1. New Meet Record (Old: 3:56.98, RSPB, 2010); Karnataka (Rehan Poncha, Likhith SP, Aaron D’Souza, Saurabh Sangvekar) 4:01.14, 3; West Bengal (Gopinath Kayal, Aukik Das, Supriya Mondal, Sanu Debnath) 4:27.16, 3.<br /><br />Women: <br />200M backstroke: Arti Ghorpade (Mah) 2:28.59, 1; Ananya Panigrahi (Mah) 2:29.34, 2; Meghana S (Kar) 2:35.79, 3. <br />200M breaststroke: M Raghavi (TN) 2:48.39, 1; Poorva Shetye (Mah) 2:48.57, 2; AV Jayaveena (TN) 2:51.45, 3. <br />50M butterfly: Pooja R Alva (Kar) 29.56, 1; Talasha Prabhu (Goa) 29.86, 2; Fariha Zaman (Kar0 30.16, 3.<br />4x100M medley relay: Karnataka (Kshipra Mahajan, Bhoomi R Motwani, Surabhi Tipre, Pooja R Alva) 4:36.37, 1. NMR (Old: 4:39.62, Karnataka, 2009); Maharashtra (Ananya Panigrahi, Poorva Shetye, Aditi D, Rujuta Bhatt) 4:37.94, 2. BMR; Tamil Nadu (Sherlyn Meghna, AV Jayaveena, Anusha Mehta, VKR Meenakshi) 4:58.12, 3. <br />Water polo: Men: SSCB: 9 (Aneesh 1, Jayakumar 3, James M 2, Sharat 3) bt Karnataka: 1 (Sherin T 1); Police bt Manipur 10-0; Delhi bt Jharkhand 5-1.<br />Women: Karnataka: 6 (Mrudula V 1, Shruti M S 2, Aishwarya M 1, Shwetha S S 2) bt Delhi: 0; Kerala bt Bengal 7-0; Maharashtra bt Manipur 9-0.</p>
