The Hindu : Sport : Arjun Muralidharan sinks 200m mark

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Sunday, Sep 23, 2007
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Sport

Arjun Muralidharan sinks 200m mark

Kalyan Ashok

Richa Mishra betters her own National mark in the 1,500m freestyle

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

CRUISING HOME: Arjun Muralidharan clinched the 200m butterfly gold in record time.

Panaji: In a fitting finale to the penultimate day’s fare, Arjun Muralidharan of Police won a high-voltage contest in the 200m butterfly event, clocking a superb 2:03.05s to etch a new meet record in the LIC 61st senior National aquatics championship at the Campal Pool here on Saturday.

The previous best (2:04.56s) set in the Bangalore Nationals in 2006, also belonged to Arjun. The field here was indeed was tough one, with two in-form contenders — Rehan Poncha and Aaron D’Souza — giving him a good fight.

Focussed

“I was ready to take them on and I just focussed on doing a good time,” said a jubilant Arjun. Coming into the race after smarting under a 50m backstroke defeat at the hands of N.A. Sandeep of Karnataka, Arjun gave all he had in the 200m butterfly as he charged his way past his rivals on lane 5.

By the second turn, he was cruising ahead, clocking around 58 seconds while the teenager, Aaron D’Souza did a brisk 59.06 marginally ahead of Rehan Poncha at 59.44.

Arjun pulled away from the two, leaving them to fight for the second and third spots. After he made the touch board, Arjun could hardly hide his joy as he let out a delighted scream and threw up his arms in joy.

Rehan, meanwhile squeezed past Aaron D’Souza to take the silver at 2:05.20 and Aaron finished at 2:05.78. Thus Arjun made a clean sweep of the butterfly events, taking golds in 50m, 100m and 200m.

Sweep by Sandeep

Sandeep Sejwal of Delhi also completed a breaststroke sweep winning the 50m breaststroke in 29.45s after setting a meet record of 29.40 in the heats.

The previous meet best was 29.85s, set by Puneet Rana of Police in 2004. Karnataka’s N.A. Sandeep and Rohit R. Hawaldar claimed golds in the 50m backstroke and 1500m freestyle respectively.

Richa on fire

Richa Mishra had the honour of setting the lone National mark of the day as she improved her own National best of 18:14.97 in the 1500m freestyle set at the National Games at Guwahati this year, clocking 18:00.64s.

The previous meet mark of 18:30.54 was set by Richa’s sister Charu Mishra in 2006. Richa signed off the day in style, winning the 200m butterfly in 2:20.80.

Shikha Tandon, on her come-back trail, gave another impressive display winning the 50m backstroke in 31.48s, just outside her National best of 31.32.

It was Shikha’s fourth successive gold and she hopes to cap it with another one in the 100m freestyle on Sunday.

In diving, Hruthika Shriram of Railways made a clean sweep when she won her third and final gold in the one metre spring board while Yogesh Watve of Services took the gold in the men’s section.

The results:

Men: 1500m freestyle: Rohit R. Hawaldar (Kar, 16:51.18 s); 2. Aaron D’Souza (Kar, 16:58.90s); 3. Merwyn Chen (Rlys, 17:05.15s). 50m backstroke: N.A. Sandeep (Kar, 28.39); 2. Arjun Muralidharan (Pol, 28.49); 3. M.H. Balakrishnan (TN, 28.51). 50m breaststroke: Sandeep Sejwal (Del, 29.45 and 29.40 (heats), NMR. Old: 29.85, Puneet Rana (Pun0), 2004); 2. J.P. Arjun (Kar, 31.47); S.P. Lenka (SSCB, 31.83). 200m butterfly: 1. Arjun Muralidharan (Pol, 2:03.05 NMR, Old: 2:04.56, Arjun Muralidharan, 2006); 2. Rehan Poncha (Kar, 2:05.20); 3. Aaron D’Souza (Kar, 2:05.78).

Women: 1500m freestyle: 1. Richa Mishra (Pol, 18:00.64, NR, old: 18:14.97, Richa Mishra, National Games, 2007); 2. Arti Ghorpade (Mah, 18:50.53); 3. Archana Gupta (Kar, 18;59.71). 50m backstroke: 1. Shikha Tandon (Kar, 31.48); 2. Fariha Zaman (Asm, 32.80); 3. Amreen Malik (AP, 34.37). 50m breaststroke: 1. Lekha Kamath (Mah, 36.57); 2. Poorva Shetty (Mah, 37.23); 3. V. Tejaswini (Kar, 37.91). 200m butterfly: 1. Richa Mishra (Pol, 2:20.80); 2. Pooja R. Alva (Kar, 2:24.36); 3. Madhavi Giri (Kar, 2:37.10).

Diving:

One metre spring board: Men: 1. Yogesh Watve (SSCB, 276.0 pts); 2. Kunja Kishore (SSCB, 260.85); 3. T. Hari Prasad (Rlys, 250.95).

Women: Hruthika Shriram (Rlys, 173.50); 2. Karishma Mohite (Kar, 159.70); 3. S. Vatsa (Goa, 150.50).

Waterpolo: Men: Railways bt Bengal 13-2; SSCB bt Kerala 12-7.

Women: Maharashtra bt Kerala 7-5; Police bt Karnataka 5-1.

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