State boys fail to impress

Damini disqualified in 200 medley; Maharashtra stay on top of table

Karnataka boys failed to come up with substantial contribution on the third day dealing a huge blow to their hopes of retaining the 26th Sub-junior Aquatic Championship even as Damini K Gowda was disqualified at the Campal Swimming Pool here.

Vishwas Shanbagh, S Siva and Vishak R weren’t at their best on Thursday and the trio couldn’t bag a single medal on the day.

The State boys fared poorly when it mattered the most as a couple of gold might well have provided Karnataka in with a great chance to clinch the title. Apart from Siva, the 50M backstroke gold medallist in Group IV on Tuesday, none of the swimmers had decent performance to show.

Karnataka had a shocking end to the evening proceedings when Damini was disqualified on technical grounds in the 200M individual medley. The 10-year-old, who timed 2:51.56 to break the national record in the morning heats, was more than 10-metre ahead when she finished the final.

Damini’s timing in the heats was more than four seconds ahead of the corresponding event in the boys’ section. She erased the previous record time of 2:54.00 set by Ruhab Khan of Delhi in 2006.

However, later the organisers said Damini was disqualified as she had done a ‘dolphin stroke’ in between her breaststroke discipline. “She had done only the upbeat stroke which is allowed and not the dolphin stroke as pointed out by the chief referee. We have lodged a protest but of no avail,” said Karnataka coach Bushan Kumar.

Earlier, Supriya Mondal of West Bengal set a new national mark of 1:05.25 in the 100 butterfly in boys’ Group III. Mondal went past old time of 1:06.07 made last year by his State-mate Ranit Dey. Maharashtra lead the table with 11 gold followed by Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Karnataka (4 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze) with four gold each.


Results:

Boys: Group III: 100M backstroke: Akash Debnath (WB) 1:12.13, 1; Sudhanshu Sharma (Mah) 1:15.12, 2; Subhamoy Mallick (WB) 1.15.88, 3.

100M butterfly: Supriya Mondal (WB) 1:05.25 seconds, 1; Saravanan S (Ker) 1:07.06, 2; S K Adarsh Narayan (TN) 1:09.10, 3.

4x50M freestyle: West Bengal (Akash, Debabrata, Supriya, Uddalok) 2:13.31. National Record. Old record: 2:13.74 (WB, 2006); Tamil Nadu (T Sethu, Arun, Vinith, Adarsh) 2:16.81, 2; Maharashtra (Sudhanshu, Viraj, Harshal, Parth) 2:17.01, 3.

Group IV: 200M Individual medley: Aditya Ghosh (Mah) 2:56.22, 1; S Aswathaaman (TN) 2:57.65, 2; Omkar A Nehete (Mah) 2:58.97, 3.

4x50M freestyle relay: Maharashtra (Aditya Ghosh, Omkar, Ritish, Ishaan) 2:29.40, 1; West Bengal (Souvik Dey, Ayan, Sujan, Rishav) 2:34.23, 2; Karnataka (S Siva, Rohin B, Sanjeev R, Manish) 2:35.72, 3.

Girls: Group III: 100M backstroke: Avantika Chavan (Mah) 1:18.31, 1; Ashwathy Nair (Mah) 1:18.99, 2; Sitara Niranjan (TN) 1:20.93, 3.

100M butterfly: Sherlyn Devadason (TN) 1:14.16, 1; Ashritha N B (Kar) 1:16.96, 2; Pranjali Davda (Mah) 1:17.62, 3.

Group IV: 200M Individual medley: Nivya Raja (TN) 3:00.36, 1; Srushti Shrigaonkar (Mah) 3:03.91, 2; Yashna Vummidi (TN) 3:04.32, 3.

Diving: Boys: Group I: 3M Spring board: S Rabikumar Singh (Man) 407.7 points, 1; Prem Potabatti (Mah) 389.5, 2; Mihir Sawla (Mah) 372.8, 3.

Girls: Group I: 3M Spring board: Sushmeeta Vasta (Goa) 303.7, 1; Poonam Shah (Mah) 291.35, 2; Priyanka Thakkar (Mah) 267.95, 3. Group II: High board: Swati Vidap (Mah) 235.95, 1; Nammi Divya Teja (Kar) 214.85, 2; Tanuka Dhara (WB) 198.95, 3. Group III: High board: Sayali Mahadik (Mah) 184.0, 1; Genevieve A D’Costa (Goa) 167.6, 2; Vineeta Ravi Kumar (Kar) 160.4, 3.