Virdhawal Khade, Saurabh Sangvekar and Maana Patel enhanced their tally of gold medals on the third day of the 68th senior National aquatic championship here on Friday.
Two national marks were set on the day. The Railways 4x100m medley team swam to a new mark while K. Ramananda Sharma of Services erased an eight-year old record in the men’s 3m springboard diving.
Khade, the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games bronze medallist, announced a strong return to the competitive stage after two years of job-induced hibernation by winning his pet 50m butterfly event.
Khade, who missed the 2015 FINA World Championship qualifying mark by a whisker, promised to attain it well before the event.
“It was important that I won the two races and regain some of the form I was in before I had to stop for two years for departmental training,” said Khade, an officer with the revenue department of Maharashtra.
Confident“I am hopeful of gaining the government sponsorship and have 75 days of training in Europe before the world meet at Kazan (Russia).
“Once I get there I am confident of picking up the qualification grade by participating in the Mare Nostrum circuit,” said Khade while adding that he could train for only three weeks before coming here.
Sangvekar won the 200m freestyle, outgunning challenger Sajan Prakash of the Railways.
“I am enjoying a good rhythm here which is helping me timing close to my best. I hope I can take this form to the international stage and get better results,” said Sangvekar , who has made it to the world championship 400m freestyle.
Maana braved cramps to win the women’s 200m backstroke but could not overhaul the record she had set in the event last year. Maana made a good start but slowed down in the final lap as her “hand became numb and legs began to hurt because of cramps.”
The most interesting race of the day happened in the women’s 800m freestyle where Monique Gandhi of Maharashtra virtually snatched the title away from the favourite and National record holder Richa Mishra of Police.
With Richa in front in the final lap, Monique summoned great pace to overtake the leader in the last 25 metres and win the title to wild cheers from the stands.
The results:
Men: 50m butterfly: 1. Virdhawal Khade (Mah) 24.95s, 2. Sarma S.P. Nair (RSPB) 25.17, 3. Anshul Kothari (Guj) 25.50. 400m individual medley: 1. M. Arvind (Kar) 04:40.44, 2. Sanu Debnath (RSPB) 04:41.55, 3. Merwyn Chen (RSPB).04:43.15. 200m freestyle: 1. Saurabh Sangvekar (Mah) 01:53.10, 2. Sajan Prakash (RSPB) 01:53.93, 3. Neil Contractor (Guj) 01:56.12. 4 x 100m medley relay: 1. Railway Sports Promotion Board (Anoop Augustine, Sandeep Sejwal, Sajan Prakash, Aaron D'Souza) 03:51.48 (NR, Old: 03:53:87 by RSPB in 2013), 2. Karnataka 04:00.42, 3. Services Sports Control Board 04:00.57. Diving: 3m springboard: 1. K. Ramananda Sharma (SSCB) 369.70 points (NR, Old: 354.75 by Viraj Patil (RSPB) in 2006), 2. Surojit Rajbanshi (Ker) 327.90, 3. M. Manesh Kumar (SSCB) 302.15.
Women: 800m freestyle: 1. Monique Gandhi (Mah) 09:15.74s, 2. Richa Mishra (Pol) 09:16:29, P. M. Abishiktha (TN) 09:36.06. 200m butterfly: 1. Damini K. Gowda (Kar) 02:24.85, 2. Srishti Nag (Chg) 02:28.76, 3. V.K.R. Meenakshi (TN) 02:30.58. 200m backstroke: 1. Maana Patel (Guj) 02:25.94, 2. Damini K. Gowda (Kar) 02:26.58, 3. Vaania Kapoor Achuthan (Kar) 02:28.64. 4 x 100m medley relay: 1. Maharashtra (Arti Ghorpade, Monique Gandhi, Jyotsna Pansare, Aditi Dhumatkar) 04:34.91, 2. Karnataka 04:40.46, Gujarat 04:48.33. Diving: 3m springboard: 1. Simran Rajani (Mah) 188.10, 2. Hrutika Shriram (RSPB) 176.00, 3. Deepti Panwar (RSPB) 163.95.
