Records tumble on day 1 of junior national aquatic championships

Bengaluru: Karnataka’s Sambhavv R bettered ace Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj’s record in 200m freestyle as three more national marks were obliterated on the opening day of the sub-junior and junior national aquatic championships here on Tuesday.

Sambhavv clocked 1:53.41 seconds to rewrite Nataraj’s three-year-old record of 1:53.54 seconds in 200m freestyle for group I boys. Aneesh S Gowda from Karnataka finished second with a timing of 1:53.54 seconds while Maharashtra’s Vedaant Madhavan (1:55.93) took home the bronze.

One of the most exciting races of the day was the 200m individual medley for group 1 boys which was closely fought between Bengal’s Swadesh Mondal and Shoan Ganguly of Karnataka.

While Shoan was well ahead after the first 50m as butterfly is his pet event, Mondal caught up in the backstroke leg and took lead in the third 50m swimming breaststroke.

Although Shoan made a fantastic effort in the last 50m swimming the freestyle, Mondal 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.

In the 200m freestyle for group III girls, Karnataka’s Dhinidhi Desinghu broke an 11-year-old national record (created in 2010) of 2:17.52 held by Monique Gandhi of Maharashtra.

Dhinidhi clocked 2:14.94 seconds to win the gold while Aditi Hegde of Maharashtra settled for silver with a time of 2:23.93 and Shakthi Ishwar Prasad of Tamil Nadu clocked 2:24.77 to take home the bronze.