Saloni erases two marks on day 2

Backstroker Srihari Natraj and breaststroke specialist Saloni Dalal continued their fine form to set new marks at the State Senior Aquatic Championships here on Thursday.

While Srihari comfortably claimed the 100M backstroke gold, the 14-year-old Saloni was way ahead of her opponents in the 50M and the 200M breaststroke events on a day that saw four new records being set.

With established backstroker Arvind Mani joining the Madras Engineering Group (MEG) Srihari was keen to assert his supremacy in his pet event. He made his intentions clear with a quality swim in the 200-metre event, winning the gold with a new meet record on the opening day. And things were no different on Thursday as the Global Swim Centre trainee raced ahead to win the 100-metre race in 57.75 seconds in another record time. He obliterated the previous best held by Arvind at 58.61 seconds set last year.

Saloni completed a fine double, winning the breaststroke events in record time.

The Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre trainee won the 50-metre race in 35.77 seconds, bettering her own mark of 36.77 seconds set in 2015. In the 200-metre race she took her game a notch higher to win the top spot in 2:47.02, improving her previous mark of 2:48.42 last year.

Vaishnav Hegde of Puttur Aquatic Centre too had an fruitful day, winning the 50-metre breaststroke in 29.61 seconds, which helped improve his previous best of 29.98 seconds set last year.

Results: Men: 50M freestyle: Vaishnav Hegde (Puttur) 24.26, 1; Pruthvik DS (BAC) 25.85, 2; Anirudh HM (BAC) 26.12, 3.

1500M freestyle: Yatish Gowda (BAC) 17:14.39, 1; Saif Chandan (BAC) 17:14.52, 2; Omkumar TH (BAC) 17:31.74, 3.

100M backstroke: Srihari Nataraj (Global) 57.75, (NMR; Old: 58.61, Arvind M, BAC, 2016) 1; Rakshith Shetty (BAC) 1:00.08, 2; Nishant Kumar (Global) 1:03.75, 3.

50M breaststroke: Vaishnav Hegde (Puttur) 29.61 (NMR; Old: 29.98, Vaishnav Hegde, Puttur, 2016) 1; Manav Dileep (Global) 30.46, 2; Pruthvik DS (BAC) 31.67, 3.

200M breaststroke: Chandru P (BAC) 2:27.60, 1; Prithvi M (BAC) 2:30.71, 2; Manav Dileep (Global) 2:32.06, 3.

100M butterfly: Avinash Mani (BAC) 57.05, 1; Rakshith Shetty (BAC) 57.19, 2; Rahul M (BAC) 58.85, 3.

200M individual medley: Srihari Nataraj (Global) 2:13.84, 1; Chandru P (BAC) 2:15.76, 2; Hemanth Jenukal (Global) 2:17.39, 3.

Women: 50 M freestyle: Deeksha Ramesh (Global) 28.26, 1; Sneha T (BAC) 28.40, 2;  Avani Tantry (Pooja) 29.20, 3.

1500M freestyle: Malavika V (BAC) 18:07.60, 1; Khushi Dinesh (BAC) 18:39.65, 2; Nandini SS (BAC) 19:11.83, 3.

100M backstroke: Suvana Baskar (Dolphin) 1:09.15, 1; Nina Venkatesh (Dolphin) 1:13.76, 2; Shriya Bhat (BAC) 1:14.40, 3.

50M breaststroke: Saloni Dalal (BAC) 35.77 (NMR; Old: 36.39, Saloni Dalal, Pooja, 2015) 1; Harshitha Jayaram (Global) 35.91, 2; Riddhi Bohra (Pooja) 36.02, 3.

200M breaststroke: Saloni Dalal (BAC) 2:47.02 (NMR; Old: 2:48.43, Saloni Dalal, BAC, 2016) 1; Harshitha Jayaram (Global) 2:53.60, 2; Shania Siromani (Dolphin) 2:58.03, 3.

100M butterfly: Damini Gowda (BAC) 1:05.47, 1; Mayuri Lingaraj (BAC) 1:08.35, 2; Preethi T (BAC) 1:11.23, 3.

200M individual medley: Avani Tantry (Pooja) 2:35.28, 1; Saloni Dalal (BAC) 2:40.00, 2; Rhia Singh (BAC) 2:40.84, 3.