Saurabh, Arvind sparkle

BAC swimmers clinch two golds each; NAC's Malavika triumphs

Saurabh R Sangvekar and Arvind M shared the spotlight on the opening day of the State Senior Aquatic Championship while Malavika V narrowly missed out on a record here on Monday.

Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre’s Saurabh and Arvind, who are expected to lead Karnataka’s charge in next month’s Senior National Championship at Thiruvananthapuram, signalled their intentions with fine displays in their respective events.

Saurabh triumphed in the 200M and 800M freestyles, beating competition from Mitesh M Kunte and Md Yaqoob Saleem in both the races, while Arvind romped home in the 200M backstroke and 400M individual medley.

Nettakallappa Aquatic Centre’s Malavika bagged the gold in the women’s 200 metre freestyle while her fellow NAC lass Shraddha Sudhir won a silver (400M IM) and a bronze (800M freestyle).

Saurabh swam a good 200M freestyle race on a fairly warm evening. Knowing things won’t be easy in a field that included Mitesh and Yaqoob, the youngster took the early lead and never relinquished it. By the halfway stage, he opened up a body-length distance, eventually powering home in 1:58.49. BAC’s Mitesh clocked 1:59.11 for the silver, followed by Yaqoob of PMSC at 2:00.89.

Malavika missed breaking Nisha Millet’s long-standing State record in the women’s 200M freestyle. Leading from start to finish, the teenager bagged the gold with a timing of 2:10.90, falling three-hundreths of a second short of Millet’s record set way back in 1999.

DH News Service

Results: Men: 200M freestyle: Saurabh R Sangvekar (BAC) 1:58.49, 1; Mitesh K Kunte (BAC) 1:59.11, 2; Md Yaqoob Saleem (PMCSC) 2:00.89, 3.
800M freestyle: Saurabh R Sangvekar (BAC) 8:45.07, 1; Md Yaqoob Saleem (PMSC) 8:49.10, 2; Miyesh M Kunte (BAC) 8:57.63, 3.
200M backstroke: Arvind M (BAC) 2:10.01, 1; Ashwin Menon (Dolphin’s) 2:12.03, 2; Pranam B (BAC) 2:15.11, 3.
100M breaststroke: Likith SP (BAC) 1:09.31, 1; Gaurav Yadav KA (Dolphin’s) 1:10.15, 2; Vaishnav Hegde (JSC) 1:12.85, 3.
400M medley: Arvind M (BAC) 4:42.49, 1 Pushpanand H (GSC) 5:07.80, 2; Hemanth Jenukal VB (GSC) 5:19.77, 3.
4x100M freestyle: BAC ‘B’ (3:43.26) 1; Dolphin’s (3:55:12) 2; BAC ‘A’ (3:56.55) 3.
4x200M freestyle: BAC ‘A’ (8:26.01) 1; Dolphin’s (8:40.89) 2; BAC ‘B’ (8:41.79) 3.
Women: 200M freestyle: Malavika V (NAC) 2:10.90, 1; Pratima Kollali (Dolphin’s) 2:16.50, 2; Siya Manjeshwar (Dolphin’s) 2:16.65.
800M freestyle: Pratima Kollali (Dolphin’s) 9:59.46, 1; Sushaka Prathap (BAC) 10:14.31, 2; Shraddha Sudhir (NAC) 10:29.16, 3.
200M backstroke: K Harishree J Rai (GSC) 2:41.09, 1; Ranjana H (BAC) 2:43.17, 2; Shriya R Bhat (BAC) 2:50.06, 3. 100M breaststroke: Charu Hamsini (BAC) 1:23.50, 1; Deeksha Ramesh (GSC) 1:24.32, 2; Shriya R Bhat (BAC) 1:24.54, 3.
400M individual medley: Pooja R Alva (BAC) 5:29.68, 1; Shraddha Sudhir (NAC) 5:34.19, 2; Simron Deepak M (BAC) 5:42.62, 3.
4x100M freestyle: BAC ‘A’ (4:23.51) 1; Dolphin’s (4:32.06) 2; GSC (4:37.90) 3.
4x200M freestyle: BAC ‘A’ (9:50.45) 1; Dolphin’s (9:55.10) 2; GSC (9:57.78) 3.