Sajan Prakash of Railways sank the men’s 1500m freestyle record before booking a ticket to the FINA World championships on the second day of 68th senior National aquatic championship at the Subhas Sarobar swimming complex here on Thursday.
Prakash was definitely the toast of the day, creating the lone record with his brilliant effort even as Sandeep Sejwal and Virdhawal Khade won their races — 50m breaststroke and 50m freestyle — to maintain their supremacy in the format.
Owner of a host of National records Richa Mishra returned from a two-year ban for doping violation keeping her dominance almost unmitigated.
Outgunning challengersShowing that she still possesses the art and skill to outgun the younger challengers, Richa won the 400m medley in style which she added to the 400m freestyle bronze she had won on Wednesday. Richa holds the national record in both the events.
Prakash, who had missed the 400m freestyle gold to challenger Saurabh Sangvekar of Maharashtra on the opening day, rebounded back in style to win in the longer format.
The 15:45.83 seconds timing by the young Railways swimmer sunk the national created by Sangvekar in 2011.
“The medal and the record feel nice as I tried the 1500m freestyle event for the first time in the Nationals. I had done another first in last year’s nationals winning the 400m freestyle in record time,” said Prakash.
“I am aiming for a direct entry in the Olympics (Rio de Janeiro) and will try to get my timing past 15.15 seconds in my future efforts,” said the young champion, who started his swimming classes in Neyveli, Tamil Nadu.
Khade and Sejwal, the two Asian Games bronze medallists and the best Indian swimmers in recent times, held their won in style but failed to make the world championship cut. Khade, who is making a return after two years of job-related hibernation, timed 23.14 seconds to be the fastest swimmer of the meet but missed the world championship qualifying mark which was 23.03 seconds.
Sejwal also did well in the winning the 50m breaststroke but his 28.69 timing fell little short of the world championship requirement, which was at 28.55 seconds.
The results: Men’s: 50m freestyle: 1. Virdhawal Khade (Mah) 23.14, 2. Aaron D’Souza (RSPB) 23. 40, 3. Anshul Kothari (Guj) 23.60. 50m breaststroke: 1. Sandeep Sejwal (RSPB) 28.69, 2. Puneet Rana (Police) 29.35, 3. J.P. Arjun (RSPB) 29.51. 1500m freestyle: 1. Sajan Prakash (RSPB) 15:45.83 ( NR , Old – 15:51.10 by Saurabh Sangvekar (Mah) in 2011), 2. Saurabh Sangvekar (Mah) 16:00.58, 3. Sanu Debnath (RSPB) 16:20.61. 200m backstroke: 1. Rohit Havaldar (Mah) 2:07.73, 2. P.S. Madhu (SSCB) 2:08.68, 3. M. Arvind (Kar) 2:09.66.
Diving: High board: 1. Tushar Gitaye (RSPB) 335.35, 2. Ch. Puskar Meitei (SSCB) 321.05, 3. Gaurav Raghuwanshi (MP) 299.40.
Women’s: 50m breaststroke: 1. A.V. Jayveena (TN) 35.34, 2. Chahat Arora (Chd) 36.34, 3. Poorva Shetty (mah) 36.52.
200m freestyle: Shivani Kataria (Har) 2:08.15, V. Malavika (kar) 2:09.07, 3. Aditi Dhumatkar (Mah) 2:09.22. 400m medley: 1. Richa Mishra (Police) 5:07.00. , 2. V.K.R. Meenakshi (TN) 5:21.23, 3. Sayani Ghosh (Ben) 5:24.04.
Diving: High board: 1. Hrutika Shriram (RSPB) 216.30, 2. Deepti Panwar (RSPB) 198.20, 3. Tanuka Dhara (Ben) 158.70.
