Karnataka may be virtually assured of winning the overall championship in the 38th National junior aquatic championship but it has been feeling the heat with Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu fishing out more golds than it expected.
On the fourth and penultimate day, when four more meet records were set, Maharashtra raised its gold tally to 20, two more than Karnataka and three more than Tamil Nadu. But in the race for the overall championship, Karnataka remained way ahead with 407 points, followed by Tamil Nadu (348) and Maharashtra (338).
Maharashtra swimmers set three records in winning six gold medals on this day. Aided by a third gold medal from Anusha Mehta, who claimed the 800m freestyle gold in great style, and young Sherlyn Devadasan, Tamil Nadu grabbed five golds while Karnataka's mediocre results in Group II kept its gold tally of the day to just three.
Easy win
Anusha, winner of the freestyle titles in 1500m and 200m besides a silver in the 400m, was a comfortable winner in the 16 lapper in 9:42.73, leaving Karnataka's duo of Pratima Kollali and Sri Lakshmi Gorur to settle for lesser medals.
Maharashtra's Kanchi Desai re-wrote the first record of the evening in 200m individual medley before State-mate Ananya Panigrahi improved upon her own record, set in the heats of 200m backstroke.
The other two records came in the 50m butterfly. Once again a swimmer from Maharashtra accounted for a record when Jyotsana Pansare covered the distance inside 0.16 seconds off the previous mark of 0:29.55.
But the day's loudest cheers were reserved for State's favourite lad, Himanshu Dhakad. He smashed his own 50m butterfly record twice in the day to claim a second gold of the competition.
The results:
Boys: Group I: 400m freestyle: 1. Saurabh Sangvekar (Kar) (4:06.62); 2. Sanu Debnath (Ben) (4:15.02); 3. Jaywant Vijay Kumar (TN) (4:15.75); 200m backstroke: 1. B. Pranam (Kar) (2:14.73); 2. Sujay Shah (Guj) (2:17.08); 3. M. Arvind (Kar) (2:19.16); 50m butterfly: 1. Aman Ghai (Pun) (0:26.62); 2. Rahul Chokshi (Guj) (0:27.03); 3. Rakshith Shetty (Kar) (0:27.22); 200m individual medley: 1. Akash Rohit (Kar) (2:16.67); 2. Rahul Chokshi (Guj) (2:17.68); 3. Jayant Mehlawat (Del) (2:20.99).
Group II: 400m freestyle: 1. Vedant Rao (Mah) (4:29.72); 2. Mohd. Yaqoob Saleem (Kar) (4:33.95); 3. Rohitash Dubey (MP) (4:34.11); 200m backstroke: 1. T. Sethu Manickavel (TN) (2:24.34); 2. Akash Debnath (Ben) (2:27.19); 3. Neel Gunde (Mah) (2:28.17); 50m butterfly: 1. Himanshu Dhakad (MP) (0:26.86, NMR, improved his own record of 0:27.02 set in the heats); 2. Surpriya Mondal (0:27.95); 3. Deshdeep Ghai (Pun) (0:28.59); 200m individual medley: 1. T. Sethu Manickavel (TN) (2:23.82); 2. Deepak Kumar Maurya (UP) (2:25.32); 3. Jason Smith (Mah) (2:26.52).
Girls: Group I: 800m freestyle: 1. Anusha Mehta (TN) (9:42.73); 2. Pratima Kollali (Kar) (9:47.08); 3. Sri Lakshmi Gorur (Kar) 10:01.29; 200m backstroke: 1. Ananya Panigrahi (Mah) ( 2:28.83, NMR, improved her own record of 2:31.37 set in the heats); 2. R. Sushmitha (TN) (2:30.76); 3. Meghna Srivatsa (Kar) (2:35.32); 50m butterfly: 1. Jyotsana Pansare (Mah) (0:29.39, NMR, old 0:29.55, Lekha Kamath, 2005); 2. Arhatha Magavi (Kar) (0:30.67); 3. M. Raghavi (TN) (0:30.71). 200m individual medley: 1. Kanchi Desai (Mah) (2:28.71, NMR, old 2:31.16 by Talasha Prabhu in 2010); 2. M. Raghavi (TN) (2:30.50); 3. Priyanka Priyadarshini (Del) (2:33.23).
Group II: 1500m freestyle: 1. Aakanksha Vora (Mah) 18:50.11; 2. Ashritha Bharadwaj (Kar) (18:58.03; 3. V. Malavika (Kar) (19:05.09); 200m backstroke: 1. M. Aarthi (TN) (2:43.51); 2. Akanksha Mahapatro (Del) (2:44.59); 3. Girija Kulkarni (Mah) (2:46.04); 50m butterfly: 1. Sherlyn Davidasan (TN) (0:30.45); 2. Avantika Chavan (0:30.67); 3. Shivani Kataria (Har) (0:31.20); 200m individual medley: 1. Aakanksha Vora (Mah) (2:31.74); 2. A. V. Jayaveena (TN) (2:32.02); 3. Sherlyn Devadasan (TN) (2:32.94).
Water-polo (semifinals): Boys: Maharashtra bt Kerala 9-2; Bengal bt Punjab 7-3. Girls: Maharashtra bt Delhi 16-0; Kerala bt Karnataka 7-0.
