Akhilesh, Pranam on song on first day

Pranam hogged the limelight with double gold in the boys’ Group II category. The BAC trainee first staved off a strong challenge from Maharashtrean Viraj Dhokale to pocket the 200M freestyle gold in 2:10.03. Viraj clocked 2:10.91 to bag silver ahead of Pranam’s team-mate SV Sumukh, who claimed bronze in 2:11.27.

The Sri Kumaran’s Children Home eighth standard student then cruised home in the 100M backstroke, beating team-mate Aravind M to the second spot. Pranam stopped the clock at 1:06.27 and Aravind touched the pad in 1:07.84.

Akhilesh won the boys’ Group II 100M breaststroke, timing one minute 15.66. In the morning session, Karnataka’s 4x100 freestyle Group II boys’ relay team and girls’ Group I team claimed the gold medals.

The day’s best performances came from Surabhi Tipre of Maharashtra, Priyanka Pirydrshini of Delhi and the Maharashtra’s 4x100M freestyle team, who all went under the national mark. Surabhi edged out a fighting Talasha Prabhu of Goa to claim the latter’s national record in the girls’ Group I 200M freestyle event.

Surabhi touched the pad in 2:09.55 to erase the national mark of 2:11.29 set last year in Jaipur by Talasha, who clocked 2:10.48 to duck under the meet record here. Maharashtra lead the medals tally with six gold, followed by Karnataka with five.

In waterpolo, Bengal boys beat Karnataka 16-7 in a league match. The State girls will open their campaign on Thursday against Bengal.

Results:
Boys: Group I: 200M freestyle: Saurabh Sangvekar (Mah) 2:00.03, 1; Jaywant Vijay Kumar (TN) 2:00.75, 2; Akshay Krishna (Kar) 2:00.98, 3.
100M backstroke: Ajey Moghe (Mah) 1:04.89, 1; V Turbu (Ker) 1:05.25, 2; K Nandakumar (TN) 1:05.48, 3.
100M breaststroke: Anjani Kumar (UP) 1:07.37, 1; Akash Rohit (Kar) 1:12.16, 2; Soham (Mah) 1:14.21, 3.
4x100M freestyle relay: Tamil Nadu (Sandeep, Jaywant, Nandakumar, Sajan) 3:48.77, 1; Karnataka (Prajwal K S, Akash Rohit, Ajay A, Akshay Krishna) 3:50.42, 2; Maharashtra (Saurabh, Apurva, Rahul, Kevin) 3:51.85, 3.
Group II: 200M freestyle: Pranam B (Kar) 2:10.03, 1; Viraj Dhokale (Mah) 2:10.91, 2; S V Sumukh (Kar) 2;11.27, 3.
100M backstroke: Pranam B (Kar) 1:06.27, 1; Aravind M (Kar) 1:07.61, 2; Rohit Imoliya (MP) 1:09.28, 3.
100M breaststroke: Akhilesh Ram (Kar) 1:15.66, 1; Neil Contractor (Guj) 1:16.13, 2; Ritesh R Suryavanshi (Kar) 1:16.95, 3.
4x100M freestyle relay: Karnataka (Akhilesh Ram, S V Sumukh, Rakshith U Shetty, Pranam B) 4:04.26, 1; Maharashtra (Viraj, Shawn, Parth, Sangram) 4:10.07, 2; Tamil Nadu (Arvind, Adarsh, Balaji, Larsen) 4:11.63, 3.
Girls: Group I: 200M freestyle: Surabhi Tipre (Mah) 2:09.55. National record. Old record:  (2:11.29, Talasha Prabhu, Goa, 2009) 1; Talasha Prabhu (Goa) 2:10.48, 2. Bettered meet record;  Sneha T (Kar) 2:15.32, 3.
100M backstroke: Kavya B (Mah) 1:10.79, 1; Aarsi (WB) 1:13.26, 2; C Ayshwarya (TN) 1:14.48, 3.
100M breaststroke: Poorva Shetye (Mah) 1:19.78, 1; Man Kiran Kaur (Pun) 1:20.14, 2; M Raghavi (TN) 1:20.48, 3.
4x100M freestyle relay: Karnataka (Prathima Kollali, Arhatha Magavi, Bhoomi R Motwani, Sneha T) 4:17.68, 1; Tamil Nadu (Visali, Sushmitha, Gulnaz, Anusha) 4:21.73, 2; Maharashtra (Surabhi, Sinjani, Komal, Asawari) 4;31.39, 3.
Group II: 200M freestyle: Kanchi Desai (Mah) 2:12.92, 1; V K R Meenakshi (TN) 2:19.87, 2; Shivani Kataria (Har) 2:19.88, 3.
100M backstroke: Ananya P (Mah) 1:10.62, 1; S Vilasini (TN) 1;15.24, 2; Shreyanti (WB) 1;17.27, 3. 100M breaststroke: Priyanka Priydarshini (Del) 1:20.48. (broke national record in heats:  1:20.32). Old record: 1:21.55 (M M Venpa, TN, 2007) 1; Divya Guruswamy (Kar) 1:25.11, 2; Shalmali Saraswate (Mah) 1:27.47, 3.
4x100M freestyle relay: Maharashtra (Rujuta, Ananya, Kanchi, Avantika) 4:21.97. NR. Old record: 4;23.25 (Karnataka, 2005) 1; Karnataka (Divya Guruswamy, Sapthami U S, Tulasi R Haritsa, Ishwarya Bhandari) 4:25.74, 2; Delhi (Anjali, Vani, Ruhaab, Priyanka) 4:30.14, 3.
Waterpolo: Boys: Punjab: 9 bt Madhya Pradesh: 0; Bengal: 16 (Viswajith Dutta 5; Pritam Dey 4; Ankush Roy Chaudhary 2; Pinti Naiya 2; Biraswar Sarkar 1; Kunal Bhanja 1; Subhankar Mishtry 1) bt Karnataka: 7 (Avinash A Rao 4;Lohit 1; Vishal Ajjampur 1; Ramston Edwin Rodriques 1); Maharashtra: 14 bt Delhi 1; Kerala: 15 bt Manipur: 1.
Girls: Bengal: 7 bt Delhi: 0; Kerala: 8 bt Maharashtra: 2.