JOIN USShubha wins thriller
Shubha’s performance was the talking point on the penultimate day of the meet as the Karnataka swimmer twice broke the national mark in her favourite event.
Riding on the back of the fastest women swimmer title on Thursday, Shubha staved off Arhatha Magavi’s challenge by one hundredths of a second, reaching home in 29.01 with a national record to the boot.
Shubha was also the winner when the two Karnataka swimmers battled it out in Hyderabad.
“Last year it was an upset win as I was not fully fit. This is my pet event so I was eager to win today. I am in good shape now that’s why I broke the national record twice. I am fully satisfied,” said Shubha.
The 20-year-old, who clocked 29.33 in the morning heats, sliced four by tenths of a second from the old national and meet marks held by Shikha Tandon for two years.
The breath-taking one-lap fly kept the crowd on the edge of their seats right from the start. Shubha C, Arhatha Magavi and Maharashtra’s Jyotsna Pansare each put on all the effort to score that crucial lead.
With less than 25-metres to go Shubha spread her arms much faster to grab an arms length lead. However, Arhatha, who shocked Richa Mishra in the 200 IM on Wednesday, made a valiant effort but wasn’t enough to beat Shubha. Arhatha stopped the clock at 29.02 to go under the meet mark for the silver while Jyotsna also bettered championship time, clocking 29.25 to clinch bronze. Three meet records were broken on Friday. Rehan Poncha stayed on course to retain the best swimmer award he won in Hyderabad. The 23-year-old grabbed his fourth gold when he stormed to victory in the 200M backstroke. Rehan timed 2:07.52 to send into oblivion his own mark of 2:08.15 set in 2007.
Mandar A Divase rewrote the meet record in the 400 freestyle with a time of 4:02.20, shaving off Aaron D’Souza’s record by almost two seconds.
Virdhawal Khade made it two in two for him when the Kolhapur lad won the 50 fly with new meet mark, clocking 24.36. The 18-year-old (25.29) bettered the meet mark in the morning heats.
Champions Karnataka are well on course to retain the overall championship title and with a day left they are on top with 278 (16 gold, 14 silver, 7 bronze) and Maharashtra, who have 160 points, are placed second.
In waterpolo, Karnataka eves went down to Maharashtra 2-7 in the semifinals. They will meet Police in the bronze medal play-off match on Saturday.
DH News Service
Results: Men: 400M freestyle: Mandar A Divase (Pol) 4:02.20 (NMR. Old: 4:04.02, Aaron D’Souza, Karnataka, 2008), 1; Aaron D’Souza (Kar) 4:02.35 (BMR),2 ; AP Gagan (Kar) 4:04.05, 3. 200M backstroke: Rehan Poncha (Kar) 2:07.52 (NMR. Old: 2:08.15, Rehan Poncha, 2007), 1; Rohit R Havaldar (Kar) 2:09.38, 2; Praveen Tokas (RSPB) 2:14.11, 3.
50M butterflystroke: Virdhawal Khade (Mah) 24.36 (set 25.29 in heats) (NMR. Old: 25.76, Arjun Murlidharan, Maharashtra, 2007), 1; Arjun Murlidharan (Pol) 25.77, 2; Amar Murlidharan (Mah) 26.00, 3.
Women: 1500M freestyle: Surabhi Tipre (Mah) 18:25.28, 1; Sushaka Pratap (Kar) 18:55.77, 2; Kanchi Desai (Mah) 19:24.25, 3.
200M backstroke: Fariha Zaman (Ass) 2:31.21, 1; Ananya Panigrahi (Mah) 2:31.76, 2; Arti Ghorpade (Mah) 2:33.17, 3. 50M butterfly: Subha C (Kar) 29.01 (National record. Old: 29.33, Shubha C, morning heats, NMR. Old: 29.41, Shikha Tandon, Karnataka, 2007),1 ; Arhatha Magavi (Kar) 29.02 (BMR), 2; Jyotsna Pansare (Mah) 29.25 (BMR), 3.
Waterpolo, semifinals: Men: Railways: 8 bt Maharashtra: 5; Kerala: 5 bt SSCB: 4. Women: Maharashtra: 7 (Shraddha Belore 3, Shubhangi Bhoite 2, Niharika Parihar 1, Dipti Motghare 1) bt Karnataka: 2 (Malavika Gubbi 1, Varshini Gubbi 1); Kerala: 8 bt Police: 3. Diving: Men: 1M Spring board: K Ravi Kumar (RSPB) 236.00, 1; Yogesh Hari (SSCB) 225.60, 2; CH Pushkar Meitei (Jhd) 218.35, 3. Women: 1M spring board: Hruthika Shriram (RSPB) 178.45, 1; Karishma M Mohite (Kar) 164.05, 2; Sushmitha V (Goa) 156.75, 3.