BENGALURU: Five national records were created as the 37th sub junior and 47th junior national aquatic championships kicked off at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre here on Tuesday. Bengal's Swadesh Mondal stole the show, breaking two records in the 100m breaststroke and 200m individual medley, both in group I boys.
Karnataka'a Sambhavv R and Dhinidhi Desinghu were not far behind. The former, who finished first with a timing of 1:53.41s, bettered Srihari Nataraj’s three-year-old national record of 1:53.54 seconds in 200m freestyle for group I boys. Meanwhile, Dhinidhi broke an 11-year-old national record of 2:17.52 held by Monique Gandhi of Maharashtra. She clocked 2:14.94 in the 200m freestyle group III girls on Tuesday. Apeksha Fernandes of Maharashtra also created a new record in the 200m individual medley group I girls with a timing of 2:26.57.
Overall, it was Karnataka swimmers, who dazzled in the pool with an impressive haul of ten gold medals. Tamil Nadu Swimming Academy also collected two gold medals. Shabarish Vishwanathan PR and Nitheesh MS sizzled in 100m breastroke, winning gold in the group IV and III boys respectively. Vishwanathan clocked 1:29.68 while Nitheesh's winning timing read 1:17.46.
There were some exciting races on the day, but the 200m individual medley for group 1 boys proved to be a close one between Mondal (Bengal) and Shoan Ganguly (Karnataka). After a fine contest, it was Mondal, who touched first with a time of 2:08.88 and Shoan clocked 2:09.05 to settle for silver. Both the swimmers clocked well within the national record time of 2:10.26 created in 2018 held by Neel Roy of Maharashtra. Mondal, with a timing of 1:05.47 in the 100m breaststroke, broke Likhith SP record (1:05.75) of 2015 too.
Select results
200m Free (Gr I Boys): 1. Sambhavv R (1:53.41) KAR (NR), 2. Aneesh S Gowda (1:53.54) KAR, 3. Vedaant Madhavan (1:55.93) MAH; 200m Free (Gr I Girls): 1 Aanya Wala (2:09.86) MAH, 2 Kiara Bengera (2:10.92) MAH, 3 Astha Choudhury (2:11.76) ASM; 200m Free Gr II Boys:1 Pranjal Pandey (2:04.82) MP, 2 Anantajit Mukherjee (2:05.29) KAR, 3 Rishabh Das (2:08.34) MAH, 200m Free Gr II Girls: 1 H Ramachandra (2:11.37) KAR, 2 Shirin (2:15.98) KAR, 3 Ananya Rawat (2:16.65) DEL; 200m Free (Gr III Girls): 1 Dhinidhi Desinghu (2:14.94) KAR, (NR), 2 Aditi Hegde (2:23.93) MAH, 3 Shakthi Ishwar Prasad (2:24.77) TNSA; 200m Free (Gr III Boys): 1 Yagna Sai M (2:20.71) AP, 2 Tejas Kumar TS (2:02.62) TEL, 3 Rakshan P (2:03.86) KAR; 200m IM Gr I Boys: 1 Swadesh Mondal (2:08.88) BNG (NR), 2 Shoan Ganguly (2:09.05) KAR, 3 Kalp S Bohra (2:12.61) KAR; 200m IM (Gr I Girls): 1 Apeksha Fernandes (2:26.57) MAH (NR), 2 Disha Bhandari (2:28.00) UP, 3 A Jedidah (2:29.51) KAR; 200m IM (Gr II Boys): 1 Pavan Dhananjaya (2:19.30) KAR, 2 Navaneeth R Gowda (2:19.50) KAR, 3 Utkarsh Gor (2:25.97) MAH
(With agency inputs)