Impressive Ganguly, Hari to the fore

On a day that saw Karnataka’s top swimmers struggle to break Maharashtra’s dominance, a handful of lesser known names came to their State’s rescue with a fine show at the 42nd Junior and the 32nd Sub-Junior Aquatics Championships here on Thursday.

With regulars like Mohammed Yaqoob Saleem, Malavika V and Damini Gowda struggling, first-timer Shoan Ganguly and 14-year-old N Sri Hari put up a remarkable show to help Karnataka maintain the top spot with 28 gold, 25 silver and 18 bronze on day four.

Karnataka won six gold medals on the day. Apart from the two, Khushi Dinesh struck gold in Group III, 200M freestyle with a timing of 2:20.98, while the relay teams too dominated the show for the State side. Karnataka won the gold in Group III, boys 4x50M freestyle relay, Group II, boys 4x100m medley relay and the Group II, girls 4x100M medley relay.

The 10-year-old Shoan, who was adjudged the best swimmer at the State meet a few months ago, raced to victory in the Group IV, 200M individual medley in record time. At the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, the Dolphin Aquatics swimmer touched the pad in 2:43.13, overhauling the previous best of 2:44.08 set by Arman Sikka of Maharashtra in 2014.

The Karnataka swimmer faced no competition as he began on a strong note to take a good lead and then romped home to win his third gold of the meet, 1.24 seconds ahead of Maharashtra’s Anvesh Prasade. Anvesh settled for silver in 2:44.37, while Utkarsh Patil of Karnataka wore the bronze medal with a timing of 2:46.40.

While Shoan dominated the only Group IV race of the day, Sri Hari, with his nippy strokes, had his say in the Group III events. 

The backstroke specialist first combined with Manohar Prabhu, Vaishnav Rao and Sanjay CJ to set a national mark in the 4x100M medley relay, and later took to the pool to clinch the gold in 200M backstroke with another record-breaking performance.

“It’s really great. I didn’t think I could break the record (in 200M backstroke). But once I got a clear lead, I never looked back,” said Sri Hari.

Sri Hari timed 2:16.71, rewriting the previous best of 2:16.90 set by his team-mate S Siva in 2014. In the medley relay, the State team won with a time of 4:21.85, improving their previous best of 4:21.95, another 2014 mark.

DH News ServiceResults: Boys: Group I: 1500M freestyle: Ishaan Jaffer (Mah) 16:38.37, 1; Mohammed Yaqoob Saleem (Kar) 16:39.61, 2; Kushagra Rawat (Del) 17:10.33, 3.

200M backstroke: Vedant Seth (Del) 2:12.69, 1; Arsh Khan (Del) 2:15.04, 2; Andrew Rajan (Tamil Nadu) 2:21.55, 3.

4x100M medley relay: Maharashtra 4:04.92, 1; Karnataka 4:06.66, 2; Tamil Nadu 2:08.71, 3.Group II: 200M backstroke: N Sri Hari (Kar) (2:16.71, NR; Old: 2:16.90, S Siva, Kar, 2014) 1; Neel Roy (Mah) 2:17.57, 2; Xavier D’Souza (Goa) 2:21.74, 3.

4x100M medley relay: Karnataka (4:21.85, NR; Old: 4:21.95; Karnataka, 2014) 1; Bengal 4:26.27, 2; Maharashtra 4:30.80, 3.

Group III: 200M freestyle: Vikkas P (Tamil Nadu) 2:16.05, 1; Zidane Sayed Iqbal (Goa) 2:17.60, 2; Vedant Bapna (Mah) 2:18.33, 3.

4x50M freestyle relay: Karnataka 1:56.10, 1; Tamil Nadu 1:56.78, 2; Assam 1:56.93, 3.

Group IV: 200M individual medley: Shoan Ganguly (Kar) (2:43.13, NR; Old: 2:44.08, Arman Sikka, Mah, 2014) 1; Anvesh Prasade (Mah) 2:44.37, 2; Utkarsh Patil (Kar) 2:46.40, 3.

Girls: Group I: 400M freestyle: Monique Gandhi (Mah) 4:32.51, 1; Malavika V (Kar) 4:32.82, 2; Abhishiktha PM (Tamil Nadu) 4:44.41, 3.

200M backstroke: Maana Patel (Guj) (2:21.14, NR; Old: 2:26.27, Damini Gowda, Kar, 2014) 1; Damini Gowda (Kar) 2:27.07, 2; Yuga Birnale (Mah) 2:32.92, 3.

4x100M medley relay: Maharashtra (4:39.18, NR; Old: 4:39.92, Maharashtra, 2014) 1; Karnataka 4:40.62, 2; Gujarat 4:47.56, 3.

Group II: 200M backstroke: Soubrity Mondal (Bengal) 2:34.81, 1; Tejaswita Bhardwaj (Mah) 2:35.08, 2; Ariesa Mongia (Mah) 2:39.73, 3.

400M freestyle: Rayna Saldanha (Mah) 4:38.73, 1; Nandini SS (Kar) 4:51.92, 2; Bahvika Dugar (Tamil Nadu) 4:53.87, 3.

4x100M medley relay: Karnataka 4:54.18, 1; Maharashtra 4:57.99, 2; Tamil Nadu 5:03.15, 3.Group III: 200M freestyle: Khushi Dinesh (Kar) 2:20.98, 1; Saee Patil (Mah) 2:21.95, 2; Varsha V (Tamil Nadu) 2:25.68, 3.

4x50M freestyle relay: Maharashtra 2:03.88, 1; Karnataka 2:05.45, 2; Tamil Nadu 2:08.71, 3.Group IV: 200M individual medley: Sanjiti Saha (Mah) 2:51.61, 1; Jedidah A (Kar) 2:54.35, 2; Palak Dhami (Mah) 2:59.24, 3.

Diving: Boys: Group II: 3M spring board: Joydeep Nayak (SSCB) 315.90, 1; Daksh Bajpai (SSCB) 287.45, 2; Nihal Giram (Mah) 259.65, 3.

Group III: Wilson Singh (SSCB) 240.15, 1; Ankit Punia (SSCB) 197.60, 2; Shivraj Patil (Mah) 184.85, 3.Girls: Group II: 3M spring board: Rutuja Pawar (Kar) 182.25, 1; Aishwarya Bhosale (Mah) 177.80, 2; Dolly Kashyap (Del) 169.80, 3.

Group III: Platform: Bilwa Giram (Mah) 165.40, 1; Jyotishree Laha (Bengal) 139, 2; Aarya Parmar (Mah) 131.55, 3.

Waterpolo: Boys: Punjab: 9 (Naseeb Dhillon 4, Ishwarpreet Singh 1, Bhavarjeet Singh 1, Parampal Singh 1, Deshseep Singh 2) bt Karnataka:  0; Kerala: 10 (Midhun J 2, Sibin Varghese 1, Gogul G 4, Anand Krishnan 2, Anand AS 1) bt Telengana: 0.

Girls: Maharashtra: 5 (Monica Moses 1, Pooja Kumbre 4) bt Kerala: 3 (Jeena Thomas 2, Pooja S 1); Bengal: 4 (Anushir Das 1, Kalautri Mitra 2, Piyali Santra 1) bt Karnataka: 1 (Suchi Puttaraju 1).