In two races on day five of the swimming event, Karnataka team-mates turned into foes in a battle for the gold at the National Games in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, on Sunday.First, it was Olympian Srihari Nataraj and his state-mate-cum-challenger Akash Mani, who were involved in a tussle in the men’s 100m backstroke event. Eventually, Srihari used all his experience to pip Akash by a whisker to take gold with a timing of 56.26 seconds. Akash’s 56.36-second effort, in the end, was only enough to earn him silver. Maharashtra’s Rishabh Das (56.80 secs) completed the podium by occupying the third spot.Later in the day, two other Karnataka swimmers—Nina Venkatesh and Dhinidhi Desingh—took their stance on the board and jumped into the pool in what would turn out to be another closely-fought race. Dhinidhi, the younger of the two, has been getting the better of her senior Nina in recent times. However, 20-year-old Nina was determined to shake up that script a bit as she touched the pad in 28.38 seconds to clinch gold. The 14-year-old Dhinidhi clocked 28.80 secs to add silver to her already heavy kitty. Rujuta Rajadnya of Maharashtra (29.12 secs) took home a bronze.In the men’s 50m butterfly event, Tamil Nadu’s Benedicton Rohit charged through the water for a second time during the day, to set a new record en route his gold. Benedicton stopped the timer in 24.39 sec to shatter his own previous mark of 24.55 secs, which he had set in the morning during the qualifying heats.There was finally some cheer for the Karnataka men’s team in the water polo event as they secured a 14-6 win over Punjab. But it was disappointment for their women counterparts as they went down 3-8 to Kerala.
