Gritty Sangvekar pockets gold; Pooja sparkles

He was not in the best of shapes but Saurabh Sangvekar showed a steely resolve to demolish the field and pocket the 1500M freestyle title at the 67th Senior National Aquatic Championships here on Thursday.

The Karnataka lad clocked 16 minutes 04.28 seconds in the 30-lap race to clinch his first gold on the second day at the Dr B R Ambedkar Aquatic Centre.

Saurabh, who is yet to recover from a shoulder surgery, had to battle physical pain more than his rivals to emerge on top. “It wasn’t easy at all. My shoulder was paining and until the final 300 metres I wasn’t sure of victory,” said Saurabh, who now has 200 and 800 freestyle events left to compete.

Two National records were broken on Thursday. Maharashtra’s Rohit R Havaldar, who timed 2:06.23 in the 200M backstroke, bettered the four-year old mark of 2:06.92 set by Rehan Poncha. The second mark came from teenager Maana Patel in the 200M backstroke where the 13-year-old from Gujarat clocked 2:22.34, slicing 1.06 seconds from her own record time of 2:23.41 made this year in the Junior Nationals in Hyderabad.

After his setback in the 400M freestyle on the opening day, Saurabh came back strongly in the most demanding event. The Pradeep Kumar-ward led from the start but only a second (58.07) separated him from his nearest rival Sanu Debnath of Railways (59.10) at the 100-metre mark.  Saurabh gradually increased the margin as Sanu and Police’s Mandar A Divase fought hard to close the gap.

At half-way stage (800M), there was only one man heading for the gold with Saurabh taking a a good six-second lead at 8:26.13 over Sanu (8:32.65). The 19-year-old then sped away for the title well ahead of Sanu, who took silver in 16:13.86, while Mandar claimed the bronze in 16:33.97.

Karnataka swimmers fared much better on the second day with Pooja R Alva completing her double by winning the 400M individual medley crown. She touched home in 5:18.54.
Railways lead the medals table with five gold and two silver, closely followed by Maharashtra (4 gold, 3 silver, 5 bronze) and Karnataka (3-7-1). However, on the points table, Maharashtra are leading with 93 points, followed by Karnataka (91).

In waterpolo, riding on three-goal efforts from Malavika Gubbi and Varshini Gubbi, Karnataka women blanked Delhi 14-0 while their men lost to Police 2-8.
Results: Men: 1500M freestyle: Saurabh Sangvekar (Kar) 16:04.28, 1; Sanu Debnath (RSPB) 16:13.86, 2; Mandar A Divase (Police) 16:33.97, 3.

200M backstroke: Rohit R Havaldar (Mah) 2:06.23, National Record (Old: 2:06.92, Rehan Poncha, Kar, 2009) and NMR (Old: 2:07.52, Rehan, 2009) 1; Madhu P S (SSCB) 2:07.54, 2; Ashwin Menon (Kar) 2:07.62, 3. 

50M breaststroke: Sandeep Sejwal (RSPB) 28.29 seconds, NMR (Old: 28.35, Sandeep, 2011) 1; Puneet Rana (Police) 29.68, 2; Arjun J P (RSPB) 29.69, 3.
Women: 50M freestyle: Shivani Katariya (Har) 27.23 seconds, 1; Aditi Dhumatkar (Mah) 27.50, 2; Avantika Chavan (Mah) 27.67, 3.

400M individual medley: Pooja R Alva (Kar) 5:18.54, 1; V K R Meenakshi (TN) 5:19.51, 2; Sayani Ghosh (WB) 5:28.34, 3.

200M backstroke: Maana Patel (Guj) 2:22.34, National Record (Old: 2:23.41, Maana Patel, Guj, Junior Nationals 2013) 1; Arti Ghorpade (Mah) 2:27.79, 2; Ananya Panigrahi (Mah) 2:29.89, 3.

50M breaststroke: A V Jayaveena (TN) 35.14 seconds, 1; Poorva Shetye (Mah) 35.57, 2; Mugdha Mallareddy (TN) 36.94, 3.

Diving: Men: Tushar Gitaye (RSPB) 322.45 points, 1; Pushkar Meitei (SSCB) 304.45, 2; Himanshu Tiwari (RSPB) 260.85, 3.

Women: Simran Rajani (Mah) 176.15, 1; Hrutika Shriram (RSPB) 159.30, 2; Deepti Panwar (RSPB) 149.90, 3.

Waterpolo: Men: RSPB bt Delhi 11-0; Police: 8 (S L Gopakumar 3, Kamal Kumar 3, Ritesh1, Ravindra Jatale 1) bt Karnataka: 2 (Jayrama 2); Maharashtra bt Kerala 5-3; SSCB bt Andhra Pradesh 12-0.

Women: Police bt Manipur 5-0; Karnataka: 14 (Malavika Gubbi 3, Varshini Gubbi 3, Minal V S 2, Sachika Satish 2, Mrudula V 1, Vishaka Bhat 1, Aishwarya Murthy 1, Kirthana S 1) bt Delhi: 0; Maharashtra bt Bengal 3-0; Kerala bt Manipur 9-0.