Jr national aquatic championship: Karnataka swimmers reign supreme

Bengaluru: Karnataka clinched the overall championship in the 44th junior national aquatic championship which concluded in Pune on Thursday.

The winners amassed 23 gold, 28 silver and 20 bronze medals while second placed Maharashtra claimed 26 gold, 19 silver and 12 bronze medals.

On the individual front, Srihari Natraj from Karnataka walked away with the best swimmer in the boys Group I category while Swadesh Mondal from Bengal took the same in Group II. It was two Maharashtrians, Rayna Saldanha and Kenisha Gupta, who took home the individual titles in the girls section.

The final day also saw five new records, all in the boys division. Srihari shattered Vedant Seth’s record of 59.87s in the 100m back stroke event, clocking 57.33s.
Madhya Pradesh’ Advait Page rewrote Saurabh Sangvekar’s six-year-old record of 16:08.80s in the 1500m freestyle in a time of 16:06.43s.

The other records on the day went to Tamil Nadu’s Vikas P (55.38s, 100m freestyle, Group II), Vedant Bapna (1:02.41s, 100m back stroke, Group II) and Param Birthare (2:11.27s, 200m butterfly, Group II).

For Karnataka, Rahul M (200m butterfly) fetched the second gold of the final day while Tanish Mathew (100m FS, 200m Fly), Mayuri Lingaraj (100m Fly), Jhanati Rajesh (400m IM) and Khushi Dinesh (100m FS) took silver medals.

Prasidh Krishna (200m Fly), Raj Relekar (800m FS) and Saachi G (400m IM) bagged bronze medals on the final day.

In addition, Karnataka girls also claimed silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay events in both categories.

Results:
Boys:
Group I:
100M BS: 1. Srihari Natraj (Kar) 57.33s (NMR; Old: 59.87s, Vedant Seth, Del, 2015).
200M Fly: 1. Rahul M (Kar) 2:10.83.
Group II:
100M FS: 2. Tanish Mathew (Kar) 55.54s.
200M Fly: 2.Tanish Mathew (Kar) 2:12.29s, 3. Prasidha Krishna (Kar) 2:12.80.
Girls:
Group I:
800M FS: 3. Raj Relekar (Kar) 9:24.70s.
100M Fly: 2. Mayuri Lingaraju (Kar) 1:05.95s.
400M IM: 2. Jhanati Rajesh (Kar) 5:31.52s.
4x100M FS relay: 2. Karnataka 4:18.89s.
Group II:
100M FS: 2. Khushi Dinesh (Kar) 1:02.80s.
400M IM: 3. Saachi G (Kar) 5:42.14s.
4x100M FS relay: 2. Karnataka 4:17.47s.
Individual awards:
Best swimmer:
Boys: Group I: Srihar Natraj (Kar);
Group II: Swadesh Mondal (Ben).
Girls:
Group I: Rayna Saldanha (Mah); Group II: Kenisha Gupta (Mah).
Team Championships:
Boys: Group I: Karnataka (132 points); Group II: Karnataka (142 points).
Girls: Group I: Maharahstra (141 points); Group II: Karnataka (144 points).
Overall Championships:
Karnataka (558 points).