Karnataka inch closer to title

Karnataka inch closer to title; Shivani shines

Defending champions Karnataka all but sealed their third title on the bounce on the penultimate day of the 71st Senior National Aquatic Championships here at the Prakash Taran Pushkar Bhavan on Tuesday.

Though the State side could add just three more medals to their tally, it was enough as Karnataka consolidated their position atop the medals table with eight gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals. Railways lead the chasing pack with five gold, seven silver and five bronze in the second place, while Tamil Nadu are third with four gold, six silver and six bronze medals.

On a day that saw two new meet records and a new national record being set, Karnataka endured a rather poor outing with Malavika V winning their only gold medal. The Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre trainee won the 800M freestyle in 9:23.62 with Tamil Nadu’s Bhavika Dugar second in 9:30.46. Karnataka’s Khushi Dinesh was third in 9:33.47.

In the 100M breaststroke final, Karnataka’s Saloni Dalal had herself to blame as she let Punjab’s Chahat Arora sneak ahead in the final 20 metres to win the gold in 1:15.19. The timing helped Chahat set a new meet record, obliterating the previous best of 1:16.25 set by Tamil Nadu’s AV Jayaveena in 2015. Saloni, meanwhile, was second in 1:16.81 while her State-mate Harshitha Jayaram was third in 1:17.72.

Rio Olympian Shivani Kataria too enjoyed a fruitful day, winning the 100M freestyle final in record time. The Haryana swimmer clocked 58.51 seconds for the gold, 0.30 seconds better than the previous mark held by Maharashtra’s Aditi Dhumatkar at 58.81 seconds set in 2014.

While the evening session had a handful of close races to enthral the sparse crowd, the morning session belonged to another Haryana swimmer Divya Satija. She set a new national record in the 50M butterfly heats, and later in the day, came back to win the gold in fine fashion.

Though Divya clocked 28.81 seconds for the gold in the final, her performance of 28.64 seconds in the heats was registered as the new national mark. She obliterated an eight-year-old mark of 29.01 seconds set by Karnataka’s C Shubha in 2009.

DH News Service

Results: Swimming (All finals): Men: 100M freestyle: Aaron D’ Souza (Railways) 51.36, 1; Anshul Kothari (Gujarat) 52.19, 2; Sahil Chopra (Punjab) 52.20, 3.

100M breaststroke: Sandeep Sejwal (Railways) 1:02.94, 1; Puneet Rana (Police) 1:04.31, 2; Danush S (Tamil Nadu) 1:04.38, 3.

400M individual medley: Emil Robin Singh (Tamil Nadu) 4:33.96, 1; Neel Roy (Maharashtra) 4:39.02, 2; Advait Page (Madhya Pradesh) 4:39.94, 3.

50M butterfly: Veerdhawal Khade (Maharashtra) 24.78, 1; Sharma SP Nair (Railways) 24.80, 2; Anshul Kothari (Gujarat) 24.91, 3.

4x200M freestyle relay: Karnataka 7:48.22, 1; Services 7:48.44, 2; Railways: 7:55.38, 3.

Women: 100M freestyle: Shivani Kataria (Haryana) 58.51 (NMR; Old: 58.81, Aditi Dhumatkar, Maharashtra, 2014) 1; Aditi Dhumatkar (Railways) 59.15, 2; AV Jayaveena (Tamil Nadu) 1:00.17, 3.

800M freestyle: Malavika V (Karnataka) 9:23.62, 1; Bhavika Dugar (Tamil Nadu) 9:30.46, 2; Khushi Dinesh (Karnataka) 9:33.47, 3.

100M breaststroke: Chahat Arora (Punjab) 1:15.19 (NMR; Old: 1:16.25, AV Jayaveena, Tamil Nadu, 2015) 1; Saloni Dalal (Karnataka) 1:16.81, 2; Harshitha Jayaram (Karnataka) 1:17.72, 3.

50M butterfly: Divya Satija (Haryana) 28.81, 1; A V Jayaveena (Tamil Nadu) 28.98, 2; Avantika Chawan (Railways) 29.27, 3.