Likith splashes his way to two gold medals

After opening Karnataka’s account with a gold medal winning show in the 100M breaststroke (Group I) on day one, Likith SP set the pool ablaze on Friday to win two more gold medals in contrasting fashion on day five of the 42nd Junior and 32nd Sub-Junior Aquatics Championships here.

Sharing the limelight with the 17-year-old swimmer, who won the Group I, 200M individual medley and the 200M breaststroke, was another emerging sensation from the State, Saloni Dalal. The 12-year-old won the 200M breaststroke (Group II) in record time to pocket her third gold of the meet.

With just two days to go at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, the defending champions were perched at the top of the table with 33 gold, 30 sliver and 23 bronze to their name, adding five more gold to their tally.

Apart from Likith’s double and the record-breaking show from Dalal, the State team topped the Group I, 4x100M freestyle, while Shoan Ganguly and Sanjiti Shah won the Group IV, 50M breaststroke in boys and the girls sections to help Karantaka maintain their top status.

In the 200M medley, Likith kept his composure to rally from a second’s deficit to win the gold in 2:12.43. Maharashtra’s Jason Smith finished second in 2:12.64, while Shwejal Mankar took the bronze medal in 2:18.29.

While the Basvanagudi Aquatics Centre swimmer did all the chasing in his first race, he had to see off a stiff challenge from Ansh Arora of Uttar Pradesh in the 200M breaststroke event. Though the Bengaluru boy started slowly note, he managed to build a slender 0.54 seconds lead on the first turn. Later, keeping his opponent in check, he shifted gears in the final 100 metres to sprint his way to claiming the gold.

In the girls’ section, Dalal had no trouble in winning the 200M breaststroke (Group II) in record time.

The National Games bronze medalist won the gold in 2:52.29, overhauling the pervious best of 2:53.58 set by Tamil Nadu’s AV Jayaveena in 2012. Muskaan Tolani of Maharashtra won the silver in 2:54.88, while Karnataka’s Harshitha Jayaram claimed the third place in 2:55.87.

Results: Boys: Group I: 400M freestyle: Ishaan Jaffer (Mah) 4:10.63, 1; Mohammed Yaqoob Saleem (Kar) 4:11.04, 2; Avinash M (Kar) 4:11.09, 3.

200M breaststroke: Likith SP (Kar) 2:24.15 (NR; Old: 2:26.38, Likith 2014) 1; Ansh Arora (UP) 2:24.23, 2; Oum Saxena (Guj) 2:28.06, 3.

200M individual medley: Likith SP (Kar) 2:12.43, 1; Jason Smith (Mah) 2:12.64, 2; Shwejal Mankar (Mah) 2:18.29, 3.

Group II: 1500M freestyle: Advait Page (MP) 17:53.91, 1; Anuj Kittur (Mah) 18:05.14, 2; Ahamed Azraq H (Tamil Nadu) 18: 10.87, 3.

200M breaststroke: Sahil Hooda (Har) 2:39.90, 1; Vaun Patel (Mah) 2:40.14, 2; Aryan Kedare (Mah) 2:41.40, 3.

200M individual medley: Neel Roy (Mah) (2:17.20, NR; Old: 2:19.68, Hemant Jenukal, Kar, 2014) 1; Sanskar Tokas (Del) 2:24.42, 2; N Sri Hari (Kar) 2:24.73, 3.

Group III: 100M butterfly: Param Birthare (MP) 1:05.29, 1; Prasidha Krishna (Kar) 1:05.57, 2; Rohit Behera (Bengal) 1:08.59, 3. Group IV: 50M breaststroke: Shoan Ganguly (Kar) 39.73 (NR; Old: 39.88, Bhargav Pukhan, Assam, 2014) 1; Anvesh Prasade (Mah) 41.10, 2; Sanjeevan Das (Assam) 41.29, 3.

Girls: Group I: 200M breaststroke: Kalyani Saxena (Guj) 2:48.55, 1; Aarti Patil (Mah) 2:49.60, 2; Harleen Kaur (Punjab) 2:49.72, 3.

200M individual medley: Jayaveena AV (Tamil Nadu) 2:17.84, 1; Shraddha Sudhir (Kar) 2:28.51, 1; Sayani Ghosh (Bengal) 2:3.42, 3.

4x100M freestyle relay: Karnataka: 4:09.12, 1; Maharashtra 4: 19.75, 2; Tamil Nadu: 4:16.58, 3.

Group II: 200M breaststroke: Saloni Dalal (Kar) (2:24.15, NR; Old: 2:53.58, AV Jayaveena, Tamil Nadu, 2012) 1; Muskaan Tolani (Mah) 2:54.88, 2; Harshitha Jayaram (2:55.87), 3.

200M individual medley: Jaahnavi R (Tamil Nadu) 2:37.07, 1; Megha Bali (Del) 2:40.45, 2; Harshitha Jayaram (Kar) 2:41.04, 3.

4x100M freestyle relay: Maharashtra: 4:19.75, 1; Karnataka: 4:25.80, 2; Tamil Nadu 4:32.51, 3.

Group III: 100M butterfly: Saee Patil (Mah) 1:10.05, 1; Poojitha Murthy (Kar) 1:05.57, 2; Smruthi Mahalingam (Kar) 1:12.88, 3.

Group IV: 50M breaststroke: Sanjiti Saha (Guj) 2:48.55, 1; Marina CH (Manipur) 43.48, 2; Apeksha Fernandes (Mah) 43.55, 3.

Diving: Boys: Group I: 3M spring board: Ramananda Sharma (SSCB) 491.85, 1; Surojit Rajbanshi (SSCB) 400.05, 2; Hemam Singh (351.95, 3.

Group III: 1M spring board: Wilson Singh (SSCB) 250.75, 1; Ankit Punia (SSCB) 231.85, 2; Satvik Emmanuel (Mah) 217.50, 3.

Girls: Group I: 3M spring board: Simran Rajani (Mah) 267.35, 1; Bhavika Pingle (MP) 253.05, 1; Aysha (Del) 237/65, 3.

Waterpolo: Boys: Maharashtra: 8 (Hardik Tadkar 1, Yash Gajinkar 1, Pranav Mhatre 1, Sarang Vaidya 3, Adwait Purandren 1, Bhagesh Kuthe 1) bt Punjab: 5 (Naseeb Dhillon 2, Ishwarpreet Singh 2, Bharverjeet Singh 1); Kerala: 2 (S Prakash 1, Anand AS 1) drew with Bengal: 2 (Kumarjit Dutta 1, Anikt Shukla 1).

Girls:
Semifinals: Maharashtra : 8 (Mahima Moses 1, Pooja Kumbre 5, Nisha Bonde 1, Monica Moses 1) bt Karnataka: 2 (Keerthana S 1, Suchi Puttaraju 1); Bengal: 6 (Tamali Naskar 2, Anushir Das 1, Piyali Santra 1, Kalautri Mitra 1, Anisha Shah 1) bt Kerala: 5 (Greeshma P 1, Jeena Thomas 2, Soorya Surendran 1).