Courtesy: Swimming Federation of India
Apeksha Fernandes, representing Maharashtra, was the cynosure of all eyes in the opening session for being the sole individual record breaker at the 36th Glenmark Sub Junior and 46th Junior National Aquatic Championships in Rajkot.
Great start by Mumbai’s Apeksha Fernandes as she bettered the worthy Aakanksha Vora‘s seven year old record of 2:29.44 in the 200 IM Girls Group II with a splendid time of 2:28.67 in the heats. She returned to the pool to break the record for the second time in the day winning the 200 IM in the Girls Group II, clocking a time of 02:27.09. Lateisha Mandanna, who trains at the GAFRAY program in Bangalore, led at the 100m mark but had to settle for silver with a time of 02:35.15 just edging past Sanjiti Saha of Maharashtra, who won bronze with a time of 02:35.16
Apeksha won her second gold medal of the meet winning the 100m breaststroke in the girls group II category with a time of 01:16.70 just missing out on a record. Shriya Ishwar Prasad of Tamil Nadu won silver with a time of 01:19.00, while Anvita Gowda of Karnataka won bronze with a time of 01:19.42.
The hosts got a cracking start with local boy and possible best swimmer Aryan Nehra showing his prowess to win gold in the 200m freestyle for boys Group I. Aryan clocked 01:57.59 just edging past Karnataka stalwart C J Sanjay, who won silver with a time of 01:57.69, while Anurag Singh, who trains at the SAI Glenmark academy in Delhi, surprised a few people to win bronze with a time of 01:58.95.
Shoan Ganguly of Goa, who just missed the national record in the heats by a time of 0.04 seconds, completely obliterated the existing record in the final clocking a time of 01:56.48 in the 200m Freestyle for Boys group II. Trained by his father Surajit, Shoan was only challenged by the clock and lived up to the pre-event hype. Vedaant Madhavan from Maharashtra, who trains at GAF Mumbai, and son of popular actor R Madhavan won the silver with a time of 02:03.07, while statemate Raghav Tandon won bronze with a time of 02:06.53.
Shoan Ganguly returned to the pool and established himself as the best overall swimmer by winning the 200m Individual Medley with a time of 02:12.72, narrowly missing Swadesh Mondal’s daunting record of 02:10.93. Subhajeet Gupta of Bengal was a distant second with a time of 02:21.51, while Sai Nihar Bikkina gave Telengana its first medal of the meet, winning bronze with a time of 02:21.51.
The day saw Karnataka lead the medal tally with a total of 20 medals comprised of 9 Golds, 6 Silver and 5 Bronze. Maharashtra is second with a total of 16 medals with 5 golds, 5 silver and 6 bronze medals. Assam stands third with a total of 7 medals with 3 Golds, 2 Silvers and 2 Bronze medals
The top seed and current champion Khushi Dinesh of Karnataka used all her experience to pip the challenge of a very determined Shivangi Sarma from Assam. Shivangi who has shown constant improvement training at the SAI Glenmark Academy at Delhi mounted an extremely strong late challenge to win silver with a time of 02:09.90, losing by an hair’s breadth to Khushi who won gold with a time of 02:09.78, while Swarna Harith of Tamil Nadu claimed bronze with a time of 02:13.36
Bhavya Sachdeva of Delhi broke the 4 year record of Rayna Saldanha to win the 200 m Freestyle in the Girls Group II clocking a time of 02:10.81. Bhavya led from start to finish to quell the challenge of teammates and clubmates from GAF Mumbai Kiara Bangera and Palak Dhami, who won silver and bronze with times of 02:12.93 and 02:15.47.
The New Group III, which is a single year age group, saw Partha Dutta of Assam win the 100m breaststroke easily, clocking a time of 01:19.81, while Ankit Yadav gave Uttar Pradesh its first medal a silver with a time of 01:24.06, while Navaneeth Gowda from Karnataka won bronze with a time of 01:24.34
The 100m breaststroke for Girls Group III saw an absolute nail-biter as the top 3 medalists finished within 0.6 seconds of each other. Although the top 3 finished according to the seedings the race was exhilarating. Manavi Varma won gold with a time of 01:23.13, while her compatriot Vihita Nayana won silver with a time of 01:23.45. Venika Parikh won Gujarat its second medal of the day, winning bronze with a time of 01:23.63
Swadesh Mondal of Bengal, who trains at SAI Glenmark Centre at Delhi and winner of the overall swimmer’s Championships for Group II boys for the past two years, beat his clubmates Sanskar Tokas and Aaryan Bhosale to emerge as the best overall swimmer in the 200m IM Boys Group I category. Swadesh raced ahead in the most difficult and his favorite breaststroke to win gold with a time of 02:11.24. Aaryan Bhosale of Maharashtra won silver with a time of 02:15.03, while Sanskar Tokas won Delhi a bronze with a time of 02:16.99
Kenisha Gupta of Maharashtra used her superior height to her advantage as she fought extremely hard to thwart the challenge of the brilliant Shrungi Bhandekar of Goa to win gold in the 200m IM for Girls Group I with a time of 02:27.50. Shrungi won silver with a time of 02:27.91, while Suvana Bhaskar, the champion backstroker from Karnataka, won bronze with a time of 02:30.89
The youngest age category, Group IV, saw its first final with the 50m Butterfly for boys. M Yagna Sai of Andhra Pradesh fought off the challenge of two Assam Swimmers Ayush Borah and Manash Pratim Baishya to win gold with a time of 00:32.84. Ayush won silver with a time of 00:33.13, while Manash Baishya won bronze with a time of 00:33.37
Group IV girls saw a 10 year old record of Damini Gowda being challenged by Karnataka’s Mounya Kosumi. Mounya just missed out on the record, but won gold in the 50m Butterfly in the girls Group IV clocking a time of 00:33.95. Annanya Nayak of Maharashtra won silver with a time of 00:34.34, while B Alamkruti of Andhra Pradesh won bronze with a time of 00:34.40
Tanay Suresh of Karnataka held on to his lead to win gold in the 50m Backstroke for Boys Group III, winning gold with a time of 00:34.30. M. Theerdhu Samadev of Andhra Pradesh won silver with a time of 00:34.36, while Aman Sungar of Karnataka won bronze with a time of 00:35.42
Manavi Varma was unvanquished in the day as she exhibited her backstroke prowess to win gold with a time of 00:35.25 in the 50m Backstroke Girls Group III. Kopal Rai of Madhya Pradesh won silver with a time of 00:35.63, while Rijul Patil of Karnataka won bronze with a time of 00:36.94
Swadesh Mondal, representing Bengal, revived his rivalry with compatriot Sreedip Mondal and had a fantastic second half to win the gold in the 100m breaststroke with a time of 01:08.11. Sreedip won silver with a time of 01:08.91, while B Akash Navin of Tamil Nadu won bronze with a time of 01:09.06
Kareena Shankta of Maharashtra equaled the meet record in the 100m breaststroke in the Girls Group I category winning gold with a time of 01:16.00. Annie Jain of Madhya Pradesh put up a superlative performance to win silver with a time of 01:16.82, while Arushi Manjunath of Karnataka won bronze with a time of 01:16.88.
The seedings went for a toss in the Boys 100m Breaststroke for Boys Group II. Vidith Shankar of Karnataka, swimming in the outside Lane 7, swam a perfect race to win gold with a time of 01:11.51, while Subhajeet Gupta, swimming in lane 2, of Bengal won silver with a time of 01:11.76, while Jashua Thomas of Tamil Nadu won bronze with a time of 01:11.96.
Maharashtra won gold in the 4X50m Freestyle relay for the Girls Group IV with a time of 02:10.86 creating a meet record in the process. Karnataka won silver with a time of 02:11.12, while Assam won bronze with a time of 02:14.22
Assam won the gold in the 4X50 m Freestyle for Boys Group III with a time of 02:05.68, while Karnataka won silver with a time of 02:06.15 and Maharashtra won bronze with a time of 02:09.96
Assam pulled a double by winning the 4 X50 Freestyle for Girls Group III with a time of 02:08.18, while Karnataka and Tamil Nadu won silver and bronze with a time of 02:10.10 and 02:10.25 respectively.
Karnataka won gold in the 4X50m Freestyle relay for Boys Group IV with a time of 02:08.89, while Tamil Nadu won silver with a time of 02:09.70 and Maharashtra won bronze with a time of 02:10.52.
The Boys 4X200 m relay Group I saw Karnataka winning gold with a time of 07:59.60, while Maharashtra won silver with a time of 08:11.17 and Tamil Nadu won bronze with a time of 08:17.67
The last event of the day saw Karnataka show its depth of talent by winning the gold in the 4 X 200 m Girls Group I with a time of 09:03.33. Tamil Nadu won silver with a time of 09:13.32 while Maharashtra won bronze with a time of 09:21.99