Sneha overpowers Arhatha

Karnataka bounce back with impressive display on third day

State swimmers brought their campaign back on track with a far more impressive show on the third day. Akshay Krishna (boys’ Group I), Aravind M (boys’ Group II), the boys’ Group II 4x200M freestyle relay team and Pranam B (boys’ Group II) also won gold to round off a pretty good day.

Karnataka lead the table with 309 points with Maharashtra in second spot on 293 points with two days of competition left. For the second day running, Arhatha suffered a setback after her disqualification in the 200 fly on Thursday. Sneha took an early lead and maintained half-a-body length margin. The Bishop Cotton Girls School tenth standard student touched the 50-metre mark in 32 seconds, more than a second ahead of Arhatha.

Cheered by a strong home crowd, both were involved in an exciting fight. Sneha held on to touch the pad in one minute 08.71 seconds to grab gold. Arhatha took silver in 1:09.56, way below her personal best of 1:03.24 set last year.

Akshay gave the hosts a winning start in the evening, cruising home in 4:57.42 seconds to claim the 400M individual medley title. Soon after, Arvind warded off a strong challenge from State-mate Akhilesh Ram in the corresponding event of the boys’ Group II category.

Aravind clocked 5:12.41 to finish first ahead of Akhilesh, who came second in 5:13.14.

Pranam won the day’s final event, the 50M backstroke, for his third gold of the meet.

Three national records were broken on Friday. Surabhi Tipre timed 17:46.88 to sink the girls’ Group II 1500M freestyle mark. Rujuta Bhatt of Maharashtra (girls’ Group I 100M butterfly) and Maharashtra’s 4x200M freestyle relay team (girls Group II) were the other record breakers.

In water polo competition, riding on a four-goal effort from Uttara G Kothari, Karnataka girls routed Delhi 11-0. Thagnatha S Prasad netted three goals and Anarghya Prasad scored a brace while Sowbhagya Lakshmi KT and Mrudula V found the target once each.

The State boys beat Madhya Pradesh 8-0. Vishal A netted thrice while Raghu R, Lohith K, Kumar Gowda, Ramston Edwin, Avinash A Rao scored one goal apiece.

Results:

Boys: Group I: 100M freestyle: Jaywant Vijaya Kumar (TN) 55.04, 1; Sajan Prakash (TN) 55.14, 2; Apurva Sharma (Mah) 56.55, 3. 50M backstroke: Gopinath Kayal (WB) 29.01, 1; K Nandakumar (TN) 29.68, 2; V Turbu (Ker) 29.96, 3. 400M individual medley: Akshay Krishna (Kar) 4:57.42, 1; Rahul Chokshi (Guj) 4:58.96, 2; Sachin Kumar Maurya (UP) 5:01.98, 3. 4x200m freestyle relay: Maharashtra (Saurabh, Ajey, Rahul, Kevin) 8:22.16, 1; Karnataka (Ajay A, Akash Rohit, Prajwal K S, Akshay Krishna) 8:22.68, 2; Tamil Nadu (Girish, Sandeep, Sajan, Jaywant) 8:27.89, 3.

Group II: 100M freestyle: Neil Contractor (Guj) 59.25, 1; Himanshu Dhakad (MP) 59.32, 2; Viraj Dhokale (Mah) 59.41, 3. 50M backstroke: Pranam B (Kar) 30.50, 1; Tuhin Kumar Kundu (WB) 31.33, 2; Rohit Imoliya (MP) 31.80, 3. 400M individual medley: Arvind M (Kar) 5:12.41, 1; Akhilesh Ram (Kar) 5:13.14, 2; Supriya Mondal (WB) 5:22.30, 3. 4x200M freestyle relay: Karnataka (Akhilesh Ram, S V Sumukh, Arvind M, Pranam B) 8:58.29, 1; Maharashtra (Viraj, Mitesh, Sudhanshu, Jay) 9:09.15, 2; Tamil Nadu (Larsen, Arvind, Gautham, Adarsh) 9:15.69, 3.

Girls: Group I: 1500M freestyle: Surabhi Tipre (Mah) 17:46.88; NR. Old record (18:42.00, Sushaka Pratap, Karnataka, 2009) 1; Sri Lakshmi Gorur (Kar) 18:57.92, 2; Srishti Tandon (Raj) 19:03.44, 3. 50M backstroke: Kavya Bhandekar (Mah) 33.04, 1; C Aishwarya (TN) 33.32, 2; Aarsi Poddar (WB) 33.81, 3. 100M butterflystroke: Sneha T (Kar) 1:08.71, 1; Arhatha Magavi (Kar) 1:09.56, 2; Shinjini Sahay (Mah) 1:12.32, 3. 4x200M freestyle relay: Tamil Nadu (Vishali, Raghavi, Gulnaz, Anusha) 9:26.58, 1; Karnataka (Sneha T, Meghana S, Bhoomi R Motwani, Prathima Kollali) 9:27.59, 2; Maharashtra (Surabhi, Shinjini, Komal, Poorva s) 9:48.63, 3.

Group II: 50M backstroke: Ananya Panigrahi (Mah) 33.86, 1; Rhea Castelino (AP) 34.21, 2; Avantika Chavan (Mah) 35.15, 3. 100M butterflystroke: Rujuta Bhatt (Mah) 1:06.81; NR. Old record (1:07.29, Arhatha Magavi, Karnataka, 2008) 1; Rujuta Udishi (Mah) 1:09.83, 2; Srishti Nag (Chh) 1:12.34, 3. 800M freestyle: Kanchi Desai  (Mah) 9:46.03, 1; V K R Meenakshi (TN) 10:14.28, 2; Vani Sahni (Del) 10:18.61, 3. 4x200M freestyle relay: Maharashtra (Rujuta U, Rujuta B, Ananya, Kanchi) 9:27.40; NR. Old record: 9:31.37 (Karnataka, 2008) 1; Karnataka (Ishwarya Bhandari, Saptami U S, Ashritha N, Tulasi R) 9:45.56, 2; Delhi  (Vani, Priyanka, Greeshma, Ruhaab) 9:46.74, 3.

Waterpolo: Boys: Karnataka: 8 (Vishal A 3, Raghu R, Lohith K, Kumar Gowda, Ramston Edwin, Avinash A Rao) bt Madhya Pradesh: 0; Bengal bt Punjab 7-4; Delhi bt Manipur 5-2; Maharashtra bt Kerala 9-2.

Girls: Kerala bt Bengal 6-1; Karnataka: 11 (Uttara G Kothari 4, Thagnatha S Prasad 3, Anarghya Prasad 2, Sowbhagya Lakshmi K T, Mrudula V) bt Delhi: 0.