Senior National Aquatic Championship: Swimmers Virdhawal Khade, Saloni Dalal break national records

Thiruvananthapuram: Virdhawal Khade and Saloni Dalal broke national records in the men’s 50m butterfly and women’s 100m breaststroke respectively on the penultimate day of the 72nd Senior National Aquatic Championship on Saturday. Virdhawal, who missed the bronze medal in the recently concluded Asian Games by a whisker, created a national record in the men’s 50m butterfly, his last individual event of this meet. He finished with a time of 00:24.26s. He broke his own record set in 2009 coincidentally at the same venue. [caption id=“attachment_5242261” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Virdhawal Khade (L) and Saloni Dalal. Image courtesy: Twitter @virdhawalkhade and @ddsportschannel[/caption] Supriya Mondal, representing Railways, fought with Virdhawal stroke for stroke but had to settle for a silver with a time of 00:24.86s while his teammate Sarma SP Nair finished third. Saloni, representing Karnataka, once again showcased her amazing ability to shoot ahead in the final part of the race. She piped SFI’s Kareena Shankta, who was the leader for the most part of the race. Saloni not only won gold but also established a national record, clocking 01:14.87 seconds. In the men’s 400m individual medley, Advait Page of Madhya Pradesh held on to a lead gained during the backstroke leg to win the race comprehensively with a time of 04:30.92 second, narrowly missing the meet mark. Emil Robin Singh of Tamil Nadu swam an excellent breaststroke leg to get close to Advait but could not match his brilliance in the freestyle leg and won the silver with a time of 4:37.14 seconds, while early leader Sanu Debnath of Railways won a bronze with a time 4:39.71 seconds. Delhi’s Sandeep Sejwal lived up to his billing as the top seed to win the gold with a time of 01:02.60seconds in the men’s 100m breaststroke event. Likhith S P of Karnataka won the silver while Puneet Rana of Police won his second bronze of the meet. The women’s 50m butterfly race saw a scintillating race wherein anybody could have won the event. Reigning champion and national record holder Divya Satija of Haryana pulled ahead to claim the gold with a time of 00:28.72seconds, narrowly missing the national record. Kenisha Gupta of SFI claimed the silver, while 15-year-old Liyana Fathima Umer brought cheers to hosts Kerala as she pulled out a surprise by grabbing the bronze. Kenisha reaffirmed her status as a top-class exponent of sprints as she beat an array of stars to win the gold in the 100m freestyle after her gold in the 50m freestyle and silver in the 50m butterfly. She swam a fantastic second half to not only pip early leader and bronze medallist Aditi Dhumatkar of Railways but also the reigning champion Shivani Kataria of Haryana who claimed silver. The men’s 100m freestyle saw the coronation of a new prince as Neel Roy, representing SFI, continued the tradition of Maharashtra producing champions in the event. The earlier record was held by Virdhawal. Neel finished with a time of 00:51.45s beating Srihari Nataraj of Karnataka, who claimed silver with a time of 00:51.64 seconds, while Anshul Kothari of Gujarat won the bronze. Team Karnataka, represented by Avinash Mani, Sanjay C J, Rahul M and Srihari Nataraj, comfortably won the 4X200m freestyle relay. Showing their depth of talent, Karnataka beat the challenge of team SFI who won the silver courtesy a fantastic anchor leg by Aryaan Makhija, while team Railways claimed bronze with a time of 07:52.75.