BHUBANESWAR: Apeksha Fernades set a new benchmark by winning five gold medals with five meet records (MR) and was adjudged the best swimmer in the girls' group I of the 48th National Aquatic Championship, which concluded at Biju Patnaik Swimming Pool here on Wednesday.
Hashika Ramachandra of Karnataka was declared the best swimmer in girls' group II as she won four gold and one silver with four national records.
Maharashtra's Apeksha, meanwhile, continued to remain in dominant form as she created the meet record in the 200m breaststroke in girls' group I. She clocked an impressive time of 2:40.36 secs to improve the previous record of 2:43.01 held by Saloni Dalal since 2017. Apeksha finished well ahead of S Lakshya and Saanvi S Rao, both from Karnataka. While Lakshya clocked 2:45.03 to take the silver, Saanvi timed 2:46.49 to settle for the bronze today.
"This is my last junior national event," said 17- year Apeksha. "My coach told me to set a new standard for the generation to come. I need to improve step by step to make a remarkable achievement in the upcoming 8th FINA Junior World Championships to be held in Peru from 30th August to 4th September 2022".A total of 26 new records were established at the National meet.
The final day of the proceedings saw a recording-breaking effort from Hashika, who eclipsed the national record in 400m medley for group II girls by clocking 5:10.70. The Karnataka lass bettered the previous record of 5:13.80 held by Apeksha. Sri Nithya Sagi of Telangana and Raghvi Ramanujan of Maharashtra finished second and third with the timings of 5:26.33 and 5:27.49 respectively.
Another record of the day came in the 400m medley for girls group I. Shakthi S of Tamil Nadu smashed Sayani's Gosh's record of 5:15.04 clocked in 2016. Shakthi touched the pads on 5:11.77 seconds to create the record and also win the gold medal. She beat Delhi's Bavya Sachdeva (5:14.87) and Karnataka's A Jedidah (5:22.81).
The Best Swimmer awards in the boys' group I went to Utkarsh Patil of Karnataka as well as Devansh Parmar of Gujarat as both amassed a total of three gold medals and one silver. In group II boys, the individual award went to Navaneeth Gowda of Karnataka who bagged five gold medals.
Karnataka won the overall championships with a total of 623 points. Karnataka bagged a total of 78 medals including 38 gold, 24 silver and 16 bronze medals. While Maharashtra finished second with 42 medals with15 gold, 12 silver and 15 bronze medals, Telangana was placed third with 17 medals including seven gold, four silver and six bronze medals. In the water polo events, West Bengal boys and Kerala girls bagged the titles.