For three days, the poor timings returned by the lady medallists, in the ongoing National aquatic championship here, were seen with concern by those optimistic about the growth of Indian swimming.
As though to prove a point, Punjab’s Chahat Arora set a National record and Haryana’s Shivani Kataria and Divya Satija produced meet records to take the spotlight away from their male counterparts on Tuesday.
Even as defending champion Aaron D’Souza, National record holders Sandeep Sejwal, Veerdhawal Khade and favourite Emil Robin Singh fished expected gold medals, the ladies section proved more exciting with three out of for events producing records.
Chandigarh-based Chahat retained the 100m breaststroke title in 1:15.19s to break A. V. Jayaveena’s 1:16.25 set in 2015. Like last year, Chahat and Karnataka’s Saloni Dalal and Harshita Jayaram finished in that order.
Divya set a record of 28.64 seconds in the heats of 50m butterfly but fell short of improving it in the final. She erased the record of 29.01, set by Karnataka’s C. Shubha in 2009.
Shivani added a second gold in style by inflicting a double-blow on previous-record holder and silver-medallist Aditi Dhumatkar in the 100m freestyle. Shivani avenged the loss suffered in the last year’s final in 58.51 seconds while breaking Aditi’s meet-mark of 58.81 set in 2014.
The results: Men: 100m freestyle: 1. Aaron D’Souza (Rlys, 51.36), 2. Anshul Kothari (Guj, 52.19), 3. Sahil Chopra (Pun, 52.20); 100m breaststroke: 1. Sandeep Sejwal (Rlys, 1:02.94), 2. Puneet Rana (Pol, 1;04.31), 3. S. Danush (1:04.38); 50m butterfly: 1. Veerdhawal Khade (Mah, 24.78), 2. Sarma S. P. Nair (Rlys, 24.80), 3. Anshul Kothari (Guj, 24.91); 400m individual medley: 1. Emil Robin Singh (TN, 4:33.96), 2. Neel Roy (Mah, 4:39.02), 3. Advait Page (MP, 4:39.94); 4x200m freestyle relay: 1. Karnataka (7:48.22), 2. Services (7:48.44), 3. Railways (7:55.38).
Women: 100m freestyle: 1. Shivani Kataria (Har, 58.51, NMR , old 58.81, 2014); 2. Aditi Dhumatkar (Rlys, 59.15), 3. A. V. Jayaveena (TN, 1:00.17); 800m freestyle: 1. V. Malavika (Kar, 9:23.62), 2. Bhavika Dugar (TN, 9:30.46), 3. Khushi Dinesh (Kar, 9:49.76); 100m breaststroke: 1. Chahat Arora (Pun, 1:15.19, NR , old 1:16.25, 2015), 2. Saloni Dalal (Kar, 1:16.81), 3. Harshita Jayaram (Kar, 1:17.72); 50m butterfly: 1. Divya Satija (Har, 28.81; NMR in heats, 28.64, old 29.01, 2009), 2. A. V. Jayaveena (TN, 28.98), 3. Avantika Chavan (Rlys, 29.27).
