Maana, Ashta set new meet records

Maana Patel and Astha Choudhury secured new meet records while Aneesh S Gowda and young Dhinidhi Desinghu continued Karnataka’s push on the penultimate day of the 75th Senior National Aquatic Championships held in Guwahati on Friday.

At the Dr. Zakir Hussain Aquatic Complex, Maana motored to the meet record with a time of 29.79s in 50m backstroke, bettering her own previous best of 29.89s set in 2016. Sagnika Roy of Bengal and Pratishtha Dangi of Maharashtra completed the podium.

While still below her personal and India best time of 29.30s in the event, Maana was pleased with her progress heading into the National Games which will be held in Gujarat at the end of the month.

“I am still behind my best time. I was aiming for the (meet) record (at least). I wanted to do the record in the morning itself but I wasn’t feeling the spark. So I rested up and came back in the evening,” said the Tokyo Olympian.

“I am happy that my time is coming along, (because) I know my training is going well. I am preparing for the National Games, it is a big event and it is happening in my State,” she said.

Meanwhile, Astha is also in a similar boat as she set a time that bettered the meet record, but remained below her personal best. In the 100m butterfly, the home favourite stopped the clock at 1:03.07s, erasing Arhatha Meghavi’s 13-year-old record of 1:03.24s. Her best Indian performance time is 1:02.71s, set last year.

“I saw my competitor so I pushed and took the lead in the last 20 meters. This was the dream, mine and my coach’s, to get the record here,” Astha said after the race.

“I shifted to side breathing (during swimming) last year, I felt more comfortable,” she added as a matter of fact.

Karnataka’s Gowda won his second individual gold medal, following his 1500m freestyle win on Wednesday, with the 800m freestyle win. He timed 8:23.17s to win the yellow metal.

Meanwhile, Karnataka’s young brigade did their part with 12-year-old Dhinidhi winning the 200m freestyle gold with a time of 2:09.29s. State-mate Rujula S, 14-year-old, clinched bronze at 2:10.52s. 12-year-old Tanishi Gupta (1:03.66s) won silver in the 100m butterfly. Tanishi, Rujula and Dhinidhi also won the women's 4x200m freestyle relay gold with Aditi N Mulay completing the quartet. They touched the pad in 8:59.70.

Sambhavv R won bronze medals in 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle.

Karnataka remained atop the medals tally with 12 gold, four silver and eight bronze medals, well ahead of SSCB in second with five gold, three silver and two bronze medals.

Results: Men: 800m freestyle: Aneesh S Gowda (Kar) 8:23.17, 1; Anurag R Singh (UP) 8:37.75, 2; Sushrut Suryakant Kapse (RSPB) 8:42.53, 3.

100m butterfly: Harsh Saroha (Har) 55.17, 1; Bikram Changmai (Asm) 55.35, 2; Sambhavv R (Kar) 55.69, 3.

50m backstroke: Vinayak V (SSCB) 26.20, 1; Xavier Michael D’Souza (SSCB) 26.92, 2; Tanmay Das (RSPB) 26.93, 3.

100m freestyle: Vishal Grewal (Del) 51.59, 1; Pavan MS Gupta (RSPB) 52.12, 2; Sambhavv R (Kar) 52.23, 3.

Women: 200m freestyle: Dhinidhi Desinghu (Kar) 2:09.29, 1; Shivangi Sarma (Asm) 2:09.50, 2; Rujula S (Kar) 2:10.52, 3.

100m butterfly: Astha Choudhury (Asm) 1:03.07 (NMR, OR: Arhatha Meghavi, 1:03.24, 2009) 1; Tanishi Gupta (Kar) 1:03.66, 2; Divya Satija (Har) 1:04.11, 3.

50m backstroke: Maana Patel (Guj) 29.79 (NMR, OR: Maana Patel 29.89, 2016), 1; Sagnika Roy (Ben) 31.50, 2; Pratishtha Dangi (Mah) 31.60, 3.

4x200 freestyle: Karnataka 8:59.70, 1; Maharashtra 9:06.94, 2; Tamil Nadu 9:21.06, 3.

Mixed 4x50 freestyle: RSPB 1:42.20, 1; Maharashtra 1:42.22, 2; Gujarat 1:43.08, 3.