Richa sparkles on rain-hit day

Delhiite grabs gold in 800M, Poncha fails to make cut in 200 freestyle

The unwelcoming factor was that it forced the postponement of the evening finals in the Senior National Aquatics Championship at the Sawai Mansingh swimming pool here on Wednesday.

Six finals scheduled on the day will now be held along with the other events in the next three days. The heavy downpour that started around 4.30 pm continued for two hours as the finals that were scheduled at 5.30 pm were initially delayed.

However, once the rains stopped, the attention of swimmers turned to the water that spilled out of the pool. With no proper drainage system, the pool water got mixed with dirt outside causing serious concern among the swimmers, parents and the coaches.

“It is too dangerous to swim in this water. There is more chance of contracting disease,” said one of the coaches. Understandingly, the swimmers’ worry was about their timings. However, the organisers first tried to remove the water but their efforts went in vain.

After two and a half hours of delay and several rounds of discussion among them the Swimming Federation of India officials decided to conduct the events in the same pool. But soon a short-circuit caused a minor spark on one of the halogen lights which convinced the organisers to postpone the events.

Earlier, in the morning, Richa Mishra took home 800M freestyle title, clocking nine minutes 26.18 seconds. Maharashtra eves Surabhi Tipre bagged silver in 9:30.37 and Kanchi Desai pocketed bronze in 9:50.67. Rehan Poncha suffered yet another set back as he failed to qualify for the finals in the 200M freestyle. Poncha could finish only third behind team-mates Aaron D’Souza and Rohit R Havaldar when overall timings were taken after the heats. Only two swimmers from a State are allowed in the final.

Results: Women: 800M freestyle: Richa Mishra (Police) 9:26.18 seconds, 1; Surabhi Tipre (Mah) 9:30.37, 2; Kanchi Desai (Mah) 9:50.67, 3.
Water polo: Men: RSPB: 11 (Robin 4, Babu N 2, Suprtik 2, Vijaykumar 2, Vinod S 1) bt Punjab: 3 (Jatinder Singh 2, Simarjit Singh 1); Kerala: 4 (Anandhu C V 2, Abhilash R 1, R Rajesh 1) bt Delhi: 0; SSCB: 21 (Jay Kumar 4, Vipin 4, Haldar 4, Das 3, L J Meitei 3, Sreejith 2, Sumit 1) bt Manipur: 2 (Robin Singh 1, Bikram Singh 1); Bengal: 5 (Aditya 2, Prasanjeet 1, Bidyut 1, Rajesh 1) bt Maharashtra: 2 (Akshay 2).
Women: Maharashtra: 11 (Shraddha 3, Priyanka 3, Sayali 2, Radhika 2, Shubhangini 1) bt Delhi: 0; Kerala: 11 (Saranya 4, Biji 3, Nitya 2, Neethu 2) bt Manipur: 0; Police: 9 (Purnima 3, Biji 3, Nayan 1, Sawant 1, Nanda 1) bt Bengal: 1 (Tagari 1).