Divya steals the show; Likith continues good form

Divya Satija stole the show on the third day of the 73rd Glenmark Senior National Aquatic Championship with a blistering swim which saw her set a new national record at the Prakash Taran Pushkar Bhavan here on Monday.

The 23-year-old from Haryana broke her own two-year-old record set at the same venue in the 50M butterfly event by stopping the clock at 28.33 to take home the gold. Nina Venkatesh (28.43) of Karnataka and Jyotsna Pansare (28.74) of Maharashtra completed the podium. The Dolphin Aquatics trainee's previous national record was 28.64.

"I'm not surprised with my performance, in fact, I was expecting this. I have been training towards this for a while now. I had clocked the meet record at this pool two years back, so that was always in the back of my mind. Maybe it was a bit superstitious like that," said an elated Divya.

"I have been in this range for a while now. In the past three races, I clocked 28.72 seconds. Every time I would take the dip, the aim was to better the time, but it just didn’t work. But fortunately, today in the morning heats I managed 28.71 seconds and that was a big relief. On the face of it, it might just be 0.01 seconds, but that helped me a lot. It gave me the confidence that I could go faster."

Meanwhile, Virdhawal Khade continued his rich vein of form by cutting more time on the meet record in the 50M butterfly by touching the pad in 24.19 seconds. The Maharashtra swimmer, who held the previous best of 24.26 set last year, was followed by Supriya Mondal of Railways and Mihir Ambre of Maharashtra on the podium.

The third record of the day was roped in by the Karnataka relay team. In the 4x100M 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 shave microseconds off Railways' three-year-old time of 3:48.95 en route to the gold. Services and Railways completed the podium.

Among the top performers for Karnataka on the day was Siva S who clinched the 400M medley gold with a time of 4:33.01. Likith SP continued his stranglehold on the breaststroke events with another gold, this time in the 200M event. The Nettakallappa Aquatic Centre trainee finished in a time of 2:18.61.

In the women's category, Khushi Dinesh took the bronze in the 1500M freestyle event with a time of 17:58.14 while Saloni Dalal (2:42.50) delayed her push in the final 50 meters and fell to silver in the 200M breaststroke.

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 3:48.83 (NMR, OR: RSPB 3:48.95, Ranchi, 2016), 1; SSCB 3:52.11, 2; RSPB 3:52.93, 3.

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 4:33.10, 1; Karnataka 4:34.84, 2; Tamil Nadu 4:39.49, 3.