Nettakallappa All India Swimming Championships: Srihari, Sajan steal the show

Bengaluru: At the second edition of the Nettakallappa All India Swimming Championships, all eyes were trained on Olympians Srihari Nataraj and Sajan Prakash fighting it out in the SKINS events - a format that has a three-round final with eliminations.

And the two swimmers did not disappoint to live up to the expectations as each one got the better of the other in one race each to clinch gold.

In the battle of backstrokers, the favourites - Srihari and Ridhima Veerendrakumar - pipped their nearest rivals - Sajan and Shalini R Dixit - in the men’s and women’s sections of the 50m backstroke SKINS event respectively at the Nettakallappa Aquatic Centre here on Saturday.

There was little separating Dolphin Aquatics’ Srihari and Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre’s Sajan. The former, however, managed to nudge ahead at the right moment to touch the pad in 25.89 seconds to take the first of the many golds on offer. Sajan finished with a time of 26.59s to win silver while BAC’s Akash Mani with a 26.82s effort took bronze.

The women’s event saw Ridhima being challenged but not threatened as she clocked 29.35s to top the podium comfortably ahead of Shalini R Dixit (30.83s) and Tanmayi Dharmesh (34.28s) who finished second and third.

Later in the second SKINS event, Sajan had his revenge by overhauling Srihari in the final stretch to grab the gold in the 50m butterfly men’s race. Siva S, who missed the podium in the 50m backstroke by a whisker, clinched the bronze.

Results: Men: 200m IM: Srihari Nataraj (Dolphin Aquatics, 2:14.05) 1; Shivank Vishwanath (BAC, 2:14.48) 2; Utsab Datta (Ray Centre, 2:18.30) 3.

100m BS: Dhyan (Global Swim Centre, 1:00.42) 1; Xavier Dsouza (Jain University, 1:01.44) 2; Jatin B (Global Swim Centre, 1:02.45) 3.

50m BS SKINS: Srihari Nataraj (Dolphin Aquatics, 25.89s) 1; Sajan Prakash (BAC, 26.59s) 2; Akash Mani (BAC, 26.82s) 3.

100m Fly: Shubhrant Patra (Ray Centre, 57.52s) 1; Pratham Sharma (Dolphin Aquatics, 57.94s) 2; Unnikrishnan S (Global Swim Centre, 58.75s) 3.

50m Fly SKINS: Sajan Prakash (BAC, 24.89s) 1; Srihari Nataraj (Dolphin Aquatics, 25.32s) 2; Siva Sridhar (BAC, 25.42s) 3.

Group I: 100m BS: Akash Mani (BAC, 59.12s) 1; Ashwin Jaiswar (Mgmo Swimming Pool, 1:04.32) 2; Swaroop Dhanuche (BAC, 1:05.17) 3.

400m FS: Dharshan S (BAC, 4:17.70) 1; Dhanush S (BAC, 4:18.82) 2; Dhakshan (BAC, 4:19.40) 3.

200m IM: Akash Mani (BAC, 2:19.42) 1; Ashwin Jaiswar (Mgmo Swimming Pool, 2:20.69) 2; Vidith S Shankar (Dolphin Aquatics, 2:20.73) 3.

100m Fly: Kartikeyan Nair (Dolphin Aquatics, 58.70s) 1; Rishabh Singh Dhadwal (Dolphin Aquatics, 59.06s) 2; Dhanush S (BAC, 59.20s) 3.

Group II: 100m BS: Vedanta Venkata Madhira (BAC, 1:02.39) 1; Idhant Chaturvedi (PM Swimming Centre, 1:03.97) 2; Prithviraj Menon (BAC, 1:06.11) 3.

100m Fly: Akshaj Thakuria (Dolphin Aquatics, 1:00.88) 1; Anish Aniruddha Kore (NAC, 1:01.27) 2; Daksh Matta (BAC, 1:03.02) 3.

Women: 200m IM: Anumati Chougule (BAC, 2:40.45) 1; Zara Williams (Dolphin Aquatics, 2:43.86) 2; Shrungi Rajesh Bandekar (Jain University, 2:48.85) 3.

100m BS: Shrungi Rajesh Bandekar (Jain University, 1:18.21) 1; Mirudula Jaiganesh (Aces, 1:20.80) 2.

50m BS SKINS: Ridhima Veerendrakumar (BAC, 29.35s) 1; Shalini R Dixit (Dolphin Aquatics, 30.83s) 2; Tanmayi Dharmesh (Global Swim Centre, 34.28s) 3.

100m Fly: Anumati Chougule (BAC, 1:09.65) 1; Thithikshaa Hanumantharaju (Global Swim Centre, 1:10.42) 2; Anna Spoorthi Teresa J (BAC, 1:14.57) 3.

50m Fly SKINS: Nina Venkatesh (Dolphin Aquatics, 29.62s) 1; Ridhima Veerendrakumar (BAC, 30.24s) 2; Naisha Shetty (Dolphin Aquatics, 30.42s) 3.

Group I: 100m BS: Ridhima Veerendrakumar (BAC, 1:07.91) 1; Vihitha Nayana (BAC, 1:09.71) 2; Shalini R Dixit (Dolphin Aquatics, 1:10.05) 3.

400m FS: Aditi N Mulay (BAC, 4:40.81) 1; Vihitha Nayana (BAC, 4:47.91) 2; Janya BS (BAC, 4:51.10) 3.

200m IM: Aditi N Mulay (BAC, 2:37.97) 1; Sahana Nandakumar (Golden Fins, 2:50.48) 2; Lipika Dev GJ (Soundarya Aquatic Centre, 2:52.84) 3.

100m Fly: Naisha Shetty (Dolphin Aquatics, 1:07.99) 1; Janya BS (BAC, 1:10.45) 2; Aditi N Mulay (BAC, 1:11.60) 3.

Group II: 100m BS: Naisha (BAC, 1:09.63) 1; Meenakshi Menon (BAC, 1:09.67) 2; Tanmayi Dharmesh (Global Swim Centre, 1:16.05) 3.

100m Fly: Thanya S (Dolphin Aquatics, 1:08.77) 1; Meenakshi Menon (BAC, 1:09.68) 2; Ruchi Bhagat (Dolphin Aquatics, 1:14.41) 3.