Senior National Aquatic Championship: Virdhawal Khade, Divya Satija break their own national records in 50m breaststroke events

Bhopal: Asian Games bronze medallist Virdhawal Khade and Divya Satija obliterated their own national records to win gold in the men’s and women’s 50m breaststroke event respectively on the third day of the 73rd Glenmark Senior National Aquatic Championship on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_5031971” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Virdhawal Khade. AFP[/caption] The five-day meet, being held at the Prakash Taran Pushkar Bhavan, saw three new records being written. Virdhawal created a national meet record in the men’s 50m butterfly. He finished with a time of 00:24.19s and broke his own record (24.26s) set last year. Supriya Mondal representing Railways fought with Virdhawal stroke for stroke but had to settle for silver with a time of 00:24.55s while Mihir Ambre of Maharashtra finished third with a timing of 00:24.78s. The 23-year-old Divya, representing Haryana, broke her own two-year-old record. She piped Karnataka’s Nina Venkatesh while Maharashtra’s Jyotsna Pansare come in third. Divya not only won gold but also established the national meet record clocking 00:28.33 seconds. The Karnataka relay team recorded the third record of the day. In the 4x100 metre men’s medley relay, the quartet of Srihari Nataraj, Likith SP, Rakshith Shetty, and Prithvi M powered to the finish line in 3:48.83 to clinch the gold medal. Rujuta Khade emerged as the country’s fastest female swimmer taking the 50m freestyle title. Her husband Virdhawal had won the men’s 50m freestyle event yesterday. In the women’s 1500m freestyle Richa Mishra (Police) bagged the top honours with a time of 17:55.55, followed by Bhavika Dugar of Tamil Nadu who clocked 17:57.67, Khushi Dinesh of Karnataka finished third 17:58.14 Results: Men: 400m medley: Siva S (Kar) 4:33.01, 1; T Emil Robin Singh (Railways) 4:36.68, 2; Jayant M (Services) 4:41.21, 3. 200m breaststroke: Likith SP (Kar) 2:18.61, 1; Danush S (TN) 2:19.11, 2; M Lohith (Railways) 2:19.94, 3. 50m butterfly: Virdhawal Khade (Mah) 24.19, (NMR, OR: Virdhawal Khade 24.26, Thiruvananthapuram, 2018) 1; Supriya Mondal (Railways) 24.55, 2; Mihir Ambre (Mah) 24.78. 4x100m medley relay: Karnataka (Srihari Nataraj, Likith SP, Rakshith Shetty, Prithvi M) (NMR) 3:48.83; SSCB: ( Arvind Mani, Ashish Tokas, Shivaksh Sahu, Anand AS) 3:52.11; RSPB (Soumyait Saha, Supriya Monday, Vira Prabhu, M Lohith )3:52.93. Women: 1500m freestyle: Richa Mishra (Pol) 17:55.55, 1; Bhavika Dugar (TN) 17:57.67, 2; Khushi Dinesh (Kar) 17:58.14, 3. 200m breaststroke: Apeksha Fernandes (Mah) 2:41.89, 1; Saloni Dalal (Kar) 2:42.50, 2; Jyoti Patil (Mah) 2:42.76, 3. 50m butterfly: Divya Satija (Har) 28.33 (NR, OR: Divya Satija, 28.64, Bhopal 2017), 1; Nina Venkatesh (Kar) 28.43, 2; Jyotsna Pansare (Mah) 28.74, 3. 50m freestyle: Rujuta Khade (Mah) 26.72, 1; Kenisha Gupta (Mah) 26.90, 2; Avantika Chavan (Railways) 27.39, 3. 4x100m medley relay: Maharashtra (Yuga Birnale, Apeksha Fernandes, Kareena Shankta, Kensha Gupta) 4:33.10; Karnataka (Riddhima Veerendra Kumar, Damini K Gowda, Saloni Dalal, Khushi Dinesh 4:34.84; Tamil Nadu( Meenakshi VKR, Shriya Prasad, Shakthi B, Swarna K Harith) 4:39.49.