Damini, who was disqualified on technical reasons in the 200 individual medley the previous day, led from start to finish to clinch the gold in the 50M freestyle event for girls’ Group IV.
On Friday, the 10-year-old set the National record for the fourth time in the meet. The St Paul’s High School student stopped the clock at 32.22 to clinch her fourth gold and the third individual gold to stay on course for the best swimmer award.
Damini bettered the National mark in the morning heats clocking 32.01 to erase the previous time of 32.41 made in 2008 by State-mate Malvika V. Nikita Bhaiya of Tamil Nadu (33.56) came second and Delhi’s Sukrita Singh (33.68) took third spot.
Good fight
Karnataka also won five bronze medals on Friday. Sanjeev R put up a good fight before being pushed to third place (Group IV boys) in the 50 freestyle, Minal B Shiva Prakash (Group III girls) in the 100 breaststroke and Ashritha N B (Group III girls) in the 50 fly also claimed bronze.
The other two third place finishes came from the Group III and IV girls’ team in the 4x50 individual medley relay.
Karnataka are virtually out of the title race and are placed fourth with five gold, two silver and eight bronze medals. Maharashtra (14 gold, 9 silver and 7 bronze) and West Bengal (6 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze) lie in the first and second spot respectively.
Results: Boys: Group III: 100M breaststroke: S Inunganba Meitei (Man) 1:22.63, 1; Debabrata Chakraborty (WB) 1:24.87, 2; Subhamoy Mallick (WB) 1:24.88, 3.
50M butterfly: Supriya Mondal (WB) 29.97, 1; Saravanan S (Ker) 31.08, 2; Rohitash Dubey (MP) 31.46, 3.
Group IV: 50M freestyle: Rishav Nath (WB) 32.14, 1; Aditya Ghosh (Mah) 32.40, 2; Sanjeev R (Kar) 32.43, 3.
Girls: Group III: 100M breaststroke: Saumya Hingorani (Mah) 1:29.28, 1; Kavya Anand (Dli) 1:29.43, 2; Minal B Shiva Prakash (Kar) 32.43, 3.
50M butterfly: Sherlyn Devadason (TN) 33.06, 1; Avantika Chavan (Mah) 33.25, 2; Ashritha N B (Kar) 34.00, 3.
4x50M medley relay: Maharashtra (Ashwathy, Saumya, Avantika, Trisha) 2:23.29, 1; Tamil Nadu (Aarthi, Jayaveena, Sherlyn, Sitara) 2:25.39, 2; Karnataka (Harishree, Minal, Malvika, Medha) 2:26.60, 3.
Group IV: 50M freestyle: Damini K Gowda (Kar) 32.22, 1. (clocked 32.01 in heats). National Record. Old record: 32.41 (Malvika V, Karnataka, 2008); Nikita Bhaiya (TN) 33.56, 2; Sukriti Singh (Dli) 33.68, 3.
4x50M medley relay: Maharashtra (Yuga, Ovi, Srushti, Aayusha) 2:33.91, 1; Tamil Nadu (Nivya, Yashna, Kamalli, Nikita) 2:36.04, 2; Karnataka (Samiksha, Shraddha S, Pavithra B, Damini K Gowda) 2:38.71, 3.
Diving: Boys: Group I: 1M Spring board: S Rabikumar Singh (Man) 368.4 points, 1; Mihir Sawla (Mah) 355.25, 2; Y Hemjit Meitei (SSCB) 346.55, 3.
Group II: 3M Spring board: Abhishek Joshi (MP) 303.85, 1; Gaurav Raghuvanshi (SSCB) 290.45, 2; Abhishek Kumar Tiwari (UP) 279.7, 3.
Group III: 1M Spring board: Ramananda Sharma (SSCB) 302.15, 1. NR. Old record: 247.1 (Rehan Chandra, West Bengal, 2006); Aditya Anil Giram (Mah) 264.35, 2. BMR; E L Naresh (TN) 244.75, 3.
Girls: Group I: High board: Deepti Panwar (Dli) 296.55, 1; Jagruti Satarkar (Mah) 256.0, 2; Sushmeeta Vasta (Goa) 248.55, 3.
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