BHUBANESWAR: Karnataka swimmers continued to dominate proceedings, as they smashed three meet records on Day 2 of the 78th National Senior Aquatics Championship at Kalinga Stadium here on Monday.
With 15 in total, Karnataka ended the day on top of the medal tally with six gold, three silver and six bronze medals. Tamil Nadu with eight medals (5G,2S,1B) and Railways with seven medals (2G,2S,3B) sit second and third respectively. “My experience from the Olympics and Asian Games helped me better my timings. I am aiming to improve my timings ahead of World Championships (in July),” Dhinidhi said.
For Tamil Nadu, M S Yadesh Babu won gold in the men’s 50 metre breaststroke final. He clocked 28.35 seconds. Karnataka’s Vidith S Shankar finished second with a timing of 28.50s. Danush Suresh took Tamil Nadu’s second medal in this final, with a 28.71s swim earning him bronze.
TN’s second individual gold came from Jashua Thomas, in the men’s 50m freestyle. He clocked 23.06 seconds. Heer Gitesh Shah (Maharashtra) and Akash Mani (Karnataka) won silver and bronze respectively.
Meanwhile, Shoan Ganguly of Karnataka broke the meet record in the men’s 200m medley final, clocking 2 minutes and 4.34 seconds. The record was previously held by Siva S (2:05.64s). Vinayak Vijay Shankar of Services and Siva Sridhar of Karnataka grabbed silver and bronze.
Karnataka’s third record of the day came from their mixed 4 X 100m freestyle team. Rujula S, Latisha Mandaana, Akash Mani and Tanish George Mathew combined to break both the meet and national records with a timing of 3:41.18s to win gold. The earlier national record was set by Karnataka (3:42.92) in the year 2023.