Jr National Aquatics Championships: Karnataka swimmers off to golden start

Bengaluru: Karnataka swimmers got off to a strong start, with three of them setting national marks in the junior national aquatics championships which began in Pune on Monday.

Srihari Natraj, Tanish Mathew and Saloni Dalal established new records on the opening day. Srihari clocked 26.90s in the 50m backstroke event to better Xavier D’Souza’s record of 27.58s. Meanwhile, Mathew stopped the clock at 26.68s in the 50m butterfly event rewriting Himanshu Dharkar’s six-year-old record of 26.86s even as Saloni shattered M Raghvi’s 2011 record of 2:46.96s by touching the pad at 2:43.01s in the 200m breast stroke event.

Other medallists for Karnataka include Khushi Dinesh, who clinched a double in the 200m and 1500m freestyle events. Rahul M (400m FS, Group I), Shivansh Singh (50m BS, Group II), Jhanati Rajesh (50m BS, Group I), Mayuri Lingaraj (50m Fly, Group I), Harshitha Jayaram (200m BR, Group I) and Suvana Baskar (50m BS, Group II) all bagged silver while Kutheesh Gowda (200m BR, Group II), Mayuri (200m FS, Group I), Rachana Rao (200m BR, Group II) and Prasidh Krishna (50 Fly, Group II) took bronze.

In addition, the boys 4x100m freestyle relay team took home the gold in Group II and silver in Group I.

Among other records of the day, Danush S of Tamil Nadu set new national mark in the 200m breast stroke with a time of 2:22.44s in Group I even as Swadesh Mondal of Bengal emulated the feat in Group II with a time of 2:28.97s.
In the girls’ division, Maharashtra’s Kenisha Gupta (2:51.94s) stormed to the record in 200m breast stroke, improving on Saloni’s two-year-old mark of 2:52.29s.

Results:
Boys: Group I:
400M FS: 2. Rahul M 4:12.26s; 50M BS: 1. Srihari Natraj 26.90s (NMR; Old: 27.58s, Xavier D’Souza, Goa, 2016);
4x100M FS relay: 2. Karantaka 3:38.78s
Group II: 50M BS: 2. Shivansh Singh 29.86s; 200M BR: 3. Litheesh Gowda 2:36.90s; 50M Fly: 1. Tanish Mathew 26.68s (NMR; Old: 26.86, Himanshu Dhakar, MP, 2011); 3. Prasidha Krishna (Kar) 27.60s; 4x100M FS relay: 1. Karnataka 3:52.22s

Girls: Group I:
200M FS: 3. Mayuri Lingaraju 2:14.09s; 50M BS: 2. Jhanati Rajesh 32.37s; 200M BR: 1. Saloni Dalal 2:43.01s (NMR; Old: 2:46.96, M Raghvi, TN, 2011); 2. Harshitha Jayaram 2:49.09s; 50M Fly: 2. Mayuri Lingaraju 29.86s.

Group II:
200M FS: 1. Khushi Dinesh 2:12.83s; 1500M FS: 1. Khushi Dinesh 18:28.09s; 2. Poojitha Murthy 18:58.06s; 50M BS: 2. Suvana Baskar 32.31s; 200M BR: 3. Rachana Rao 2:52.93s.