Srihari’s record spree continues

Four more records were rewritten on the penultimate day of the 73rd Glenmark Senior National Aquatic Championships at the Prakash Taran Pushkar Bhavan here on Tuesday.

Srihari Nataraj continued his record-breaking spree as rewrote his own record in the 50m backstroke event with a time of 25.58.

The Karnataka teenager, trained by AC Jayaraj, bettered his time of 26.18 from last year in the heats by stopping the clock at 26.01 and went a step further in the final.

His training mates, Rakshith U Shetty (26.73) of Karnataka and Madhu PS (27.02) of Services completed the podium.

The backstroker then added another gold to his ever-increasing collection by coming in first in the 100m freestyle event.

He stopped the clock at 50.59 to claim the yellow metal ahead of Service duo Anand AS (51.49) and Vinay Saharan (52.87).

“It was an average start. I think I could have done better,” said Srihari after the race. “Since we were on the shallow end, I couldn’t go deep and that hurt my start.

“I think I was rusty in the initial 20-25 metres. I tried to keep an eye on Rakshit to be in the leading pack. Thankfully, it worked out well.”

Wednesday will be his pet event, 100m backstroke.

“I will swim the heats and see how good a shape I’m in. Thankfully for us, we aren’t banking on this meet much. The plan is to go all-out at the Asian age-group,” he remarked.

Meanwhile, Kushagra Rawat of Delhi added more weight to his reputation with another new meet record at the event, this time in the 800m freestyle.

The SAI Glenmark trainee came in at 8:09.47 to better Advait Page’s one-year-old record of 8:12.51.

Shivani Kataria of Haryana took the new record in the 200m freestyle with a time of 2:05.80. She broke her own previous best of 2:05.86 set last year, en route to the gold. Karnataka’s Khushi Dinesh took the bronze with a time of 2:10.49.

The final record came in the 4x50m mixed freestyle relay where Maharashtra quartet of Mihir Ambre, Rujuta Khade, Kenisha Gupta and Virdhawal Khade shattered the one-year-old record of 1:40.00 by touching the pad in 1:39.69. Karnataka took the bronze with a time of 1:41.92. Karnataka also won the gold in women’s 4x200m freestyle relay while Nina Venkatesh and Ridhima Veerendra Kumar took bronze in 100m butterfly and 50m backstroke respectively.

Results: Men: 800m freestyle: Kushagra Rawat (Del) 8:09.47, (NMR, OR: Advait Page 8:12.51, Thiruvananthapuram, 2018), 1; Soumyajit Saha (Railways) 8:32.01, 2; Sushrut S Kapse (Railways) 8:33.58, 3.

100m butterfly: Sajan Prakash (Pol) 54.25, 1; Mihir Ambre (Mah) 54.38, 2; Supriya Mondal (Railways) 54.47, 3.

50m backstroke: Srihari Nataraj (Kar) 25.58 (NMR, OR: Srihari Nataraj 26.18, Thiruvananthapuram, 2018), 1; Rakshith U Shetty (Kar) 26.73, 2; Madhu PS (Services) 27.02, 3.

100m freestyle: Srihari Nataraj (Kar) 50.59, 1; Anand AS (Services) 51.49, 2; Vinay Saharan (Services) 52.87, 3.

Women: 200m freestyle: Shivani Kataria (Har) 2:05.80 (NMR, OR: Shivani Kataria 2:05.86, Thiruvananthapuram, 2018), 1; Kenisha Gupta (Mah) 2:07.94, 2; Khushi Dinesh (Kar) 2:10.49, 3.

100m butterfly: Divya Satija (Har) 1:04.38, 1; Apeksha Fernandes (Mah) 1:05.53, 2; Nina Venkatesh (Kar) 1:05.98, 3.

50m backstroke: Maana Patel (Guj) 30.39, 1; Jyotsna Pansare (Mah) 30.82, 2; Ridhima Veerendra Kumar (Kar) 30.87, 3.

4x200m freestyle relay: Karnataka 9:04.86, 1; Maharashtra 9:08.51, 2; Tamil Nadu 9:09.18, 3.

4x50m mixed freestyle relay: Maharashtra 1:39.69 (NMR; OR: 1:40.00, SFI, 2018) 1; Railways 1:41.83, 2; Karnataka 1:41.92.