Bengaluru girls bask in glory at Guwahati

 Girls from Bengaluru stole the show on the penultimate day of the 12th South Asian Games’ swimming competition here on Tuesday.

Malavika V (400M freestyle) and Damini K Gowda (200M butterfly) captured their second individual gold medals of the meet in dominating performances before teaming up with another City teenager Shraddha Sudhir to help India win the women’s 4x200M freestyle relay gold.

All the three girls, trainees at the Basavangudi Aquatic Centre under national coach Pradeep Kumar, were extremely delighted at winning an international gold.

“It feels amazing to win a gold,” said an ecstatic Damini, a student of Jain College. “We had a one-month long training in New Delhi prior to the Games and it has really helped. We knew we would face a stiff competition from Sri Lankans, so we worked really hard for the meet and the results are evident.”

Malavika too was thrilled after winning her second individual gold medal of the meet. “Given the circumstances, I guess I’m really happy with the way I’ve performed in this championship. I couldn’t train the way I wanted to for this Games. I had to attend my 12th standard practicals examination just days for this event.

“So I was in and out of training. It’s very difficult like that. Athletes need certain rhythm before any championship but I just couldn’t manage that. Having said that, I was confident of myself. Pradeep sir really motivated me and I’m glad to have won gold in every race that I’ve taken part here.”