Aaron, Pooja adjudged best

Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre retain overall team championship

Aaron D’Souza rewrote two meet marks and retained the best male swimmer award as Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre extended their reign in the State Senior Aquatic Championships here on Wednesday.

Hosts BAC tallied 635 points to comfortably retain the overall championship. Aaron claimed the top honours for the third straight year while Pooja R Alva bagged the corresponding award in the women’s section. The 20-year-old Aaron, who won the best swimmer prize at the Senior Nationals in Ranchi last year, claimed five individual gold medals here.

“I hope to produce the same form at the Nationals next month,” said Aaron.
The Senior Nationals will be held from October 1-5 in Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune.

Two records

On the final day, Aaron broke the 50M backstroke and 100M freestyle meet records after pocketing the 200M butterfly (2:10.71) in the morning. The BAC swimmer clocked 28.05 seconds in the 50 backstroke, erasing the previous mark of 28.19 set by his team-mate Sandeep NA in 2008.

Sandeep, who timed 28.49, had to be content with the bronze here. In the 100 freestyle, Aaron’s time of 51.67 was 0.04 seconds better than his two-year-old mark of 51.71.

The 22-year-old Pooja, who completed her Computer Science graduation from the BIT, took home the 50, 100, 200 fly and 200 and 400 individual medley titles to regain the award she won in 2009.

Nettakallappa Aquatic Centre’s Shreesh Reddy made a comeback to competitive swimming after a gap of 14 years, claiming a bronze in the 50M butterfly, clocking 28.42. Shreesh last competed in the 1998 Nationals here where he won the best swimmer award. Malavika V of NAC clinched bronze medals in the 100 and 400 freestyle events.

Men: 400M freestyle: Saurabh Sangvekar (BAC) 4:09.20, 1; Gagan A P (BAC) 4:12.67, 2; Ajay A (BAC) 4:27.44, 3.

50M backstroke: Aaron D'souza (BAC) 28.05 seconds. NMR (Old: 28.19, Sandeep NA, BAC, 2008) 1; Rohit Havaldar (Dolphin Aquatics) 28.48, 2; Sandeep N A (BAC) 28.49, 3.
200M butterfly: Aaron D'souza (BAC) 2:10.71, 1; Mitesh M Kunte (BAC) 2:12.78, 2; Sumukh (BAC) 2:23.45, 3.

100M freestyle: Aaron D'souza (BAC) 51.67. New Meet Record (Old: 51.71, Aaron D’Souza, BAC, 2009) 1; Rohit Havaldar (Dolphin Aquatics) 54.08, 2; Saurabh Sangvekar (BAC) 55.03, 3.

50M butterfly: Rakshit U Shetty (BAC) 26.74 seconds, 1; Mitesh K (BAC) 27.89, 2; Shreesh Reddy (Nettakallappa Aquatic Centre) 28.42, 3.

4x100M medley relay: BAC ‘A’ (4:08.89) 1; BAC ‘B’ (4:11.22) 2; Dolphin (4:19.84) 3.
Women: 400M freestyle: Surabhi U Tipre (BAC) 4:36.63, 1; Pratima Kollali (Dolphin Aquatics) 4:43.16, 2; Malavika V (NAC) 4:46.35, 3.

50M backstroke: Damini K Gowda (BAC) 34.23 seconds, 1; Kshipra Mahajan (BAC) 34.58, 2; Tulasi R Haritsa (BAC) 34.96, 3.

200M butterfly: Pooja R Alva (BAC) 2:29.21, 1; Damini K Gowda (BAC) 2:32.47, 2; Simran D M (BAC) 2:33.63, 3.

100M freestyle: Surabhi U Tipre (BAC) 1:00.73, 1; Sneha T (BAC) 1:02.24, 2; Malavika V (NAC) 1:02.47, 3.

50M butterfly: Pooja R Alva (BAC) 30.30 seconds, 1; Damini K Gowda (BAC) 31.04, 2; Sneha T (BAC) 31.40, 3.

4x100M medley relay: BAC ‘A’ (4:54.36) 1; BAC ‘B’ (5:06.57) 2; Dolphin Aquatics (5:51.98) 3.

Diving: Men: 1M springboard: T Johnson Meitei (MEG) 225.35 points, 1; Elanchezhiyan S (DAC) 194.75, 2; M Robi Singh (MEG) 173.55, 3.

3M springboard: Ankit Dutta (MEG) 235, 1; T  Johnson Meitei (MEG) 213.15, 2; Elenchezhiyan (DAC) 163.25, 3.

High board: Kumar J (DAC) 227.5, 1; Mina's Nageshkar (MEG) 186.3, 2; Ankit Dutta (MEG) 84.9, 3.

Speical awards: Overall champions: BAC (635 points).     
   
Individual champion: Men: Aaron D’souza (BAC, 135 points). Women: Pooja Alva (BAC, 35).

Water polo: BAC, 1; MEG, 2.