Damini, Mayuri power to victories

Damini K Gowda and Mayuri Lingaraj were the stand out performers for a dominant Karnataka side as their record-breaking feat meant the defending champions ruled the pool on the third day of the 43rd Junior National Aquatics Championships on Thursday.

Apart from the two girls, Karnataka’s boys who swam the Group II, 4x200M freestyle relay too set a new national mark en route their gold medal on a day that had five new national marks being set here at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre.

The hosts lead the medals table with 22 gold, 15 silver and 12 bronze medals, and seem likely to retain the overall championships, as Maharashtra are a distant second with 10 gold, 11 silver and nine bronze medals.

Getting into her strides for the Group I, 100M butterfly final, Karnataka’s top swimmer Damini was no match for her competitors as she produced one of the best performances of the meet to clinch the gold in 1:04.66, rewriting her own mark of 1:04.78 set at the Pune meet last year.

Having already bettered the previous mark at the recently held State meet, the BAC trainee was determined to better the mark in what is her last year in the age-group category. 

While Damini winning gold was on the expected lines, Mayuri’s swim to the top of the podium came in one of the closest races of the day.

Slow to get off the starting block in the 100M butterfly (Group II), the 14-year-old made up for the lost time on the turn and later kicked hard enough to get past Assam’s Anubhuthi Baruah to touch the pad in 1:05.98, creating another national mark. She wiped out the previous record of 1:06.61 set by none other than the Karnataka’s butterfly specialist Damini in 2012.

Goa’s Xavier D’Souza was the other swimmer to set a national record on a windy evening here. Taking the pool for his Group I, 50M backstroke, he clocked 27.58 seconds to obliterate the previous mark of 27.65 seconds set by Delhi’s Vedant Seth in 2015.

Karnataka, in the boys Group II, 4x200M freestyle relay, clocked 8:26.90 for the gold, bettering their mark of 8:34.86 set in 2015. 

Results: Swimming: Boys: Group I: 100M freestyle: Rutvik Bhatt (Guj) 54.19, 1; Ishaan Jaffer (Mah) 54.67, 2; Saumya Vora (Mah) 55.08, 3. 

50M backstroke: Xavier D’Souza (Goa) 27.58 (NMR; Old: 27.65, Vedant Seth, Del, 2015), 1; N Srihari (Kar) 28.45, 2; Sandeep Huger (MP) 29.49, 3. 

400M individual medley: Neel Roy (Mah) 4:42.50, 1; Shivaksh Sahu (Cht) 4:46.80, 2; Advait Page (MP) 4:49.54, 3. 

4x200M freestyle relay: Maharashtra 8:04.39 (NMR Old: 8:07.68, Karnataka, 2015) 1; Karnataka 8:04.61, 2; Delhi 8:24.29, 3.

Group II: 100m freestyle: CJ Sanjay (Kar) 55.60, 1; Rudransh Mishra (Mah) 57.53, 2; Prasidha Krishna (Kar) 58.34, 3. 

50M backstroke: Tanmay Das (Del) 29.88, 1; D Adhithya (TN) 29.93, 2; Siddharth Joshi (Kar) 30.21, 3. 

400M individual medley: Sanskar Tokas (Del) 4:53.53, 1; P Kushal (Kar) 4:55.16, 2; H Ahmed Azraq (TN) 5:08.96, 3.

 4x200M freestyle relay: Karnataka 8:26.90 (NMR, Old: 8:34.86, Karnataka, 2014), 1; Tamil Nadu 8:48.53, 2; Maharashtra 9:05.43, 3.

Girls: Group I: 1500M freestyle: Rayna Saldhana (Mah) 18:33.72, Preksha HM (Kar) 18:46.53, 2; Bhavika Dugar (TN) 18:57.46, 3. 

50M backstroke: Nivya Raja (TN) 31.89, 1; Yuga Birnale (Mah) 32.12, 2; Jhanati Rajesh (Kar) 32.97, 3. 

100M butterfly: Damini K Gowda (Kar) 1:04.66 (NMR; Old: 1:04.78, Damini K Gowda, 2015), 1; Trisha Karkhanis (Mah) 1:06.78, 2; Suman D Patil (Goa) 1:07.50, 3. 4x200M freestyle relay: Karnataka 9:10.31, 1; Maharashtra 9:16.78, 2; Bengal 9:23.31, 3. Group II: 800M freestyle: Tanuj Trina (Tel) 9:43.18, 1; Khushi Dinesh (Kar) 9:43.94, 2; SS Nandini (Kar) 10:02.70, 3. 50M backstroke: Pratyasha Ray (Odi) 32.87, 1; R Jaahnavi (TN) 32.97, 2; Goli Jahnavi (Tel) 33.03, 3. 100M butterfly: Mayuri Lingaraj (Kar) 1:05.98 (NMR Old: 1:06.61, Damini K Gowda, Kar, 2012) 1; Anubhuthi Baruah (Asm) 1:08.60, 2; Priyanga Pugazharasu (TN) 1:09.28, 3.4x200M freestyle relay: Karnataka 9:24.20, 1; Maharashtra 9:37.76, 2; Tamil Nadu 9:59.42, 3.Water polo: Boys: Karnataka: 7 bt Gujarat: 2; Bengal: 10 bt Punjab: 3; Manipur: 13 bt Delhi: 4; Maharashtra: 11 bt Kerala: 9. Girls: Bengal: 10 drew with Kerala: 10; Maharashtra: 2 drew with Kerala: 2.