Virdhawal Khade of Maharashtra and Richa Mishra of Delhi completely dominated the swimming competition of the 34th National Games here.
Khade won two golds with record time on the final day on Saturday to take home eight gold medals all with record time and a silver.
In 17 starts, Richa won 11 golds, four silvers and a bronze for a total of a whooping 16 medals. Such a wonderful performance earned them the tag of best swimmers.
Maharashtra with 17 golds, 15 silvers and as many bronze medals emerged the best State.
As many as 20 records in the men's section and nine in the ladies' side were broken during the seven-day competition.
Tamil Nadu's teenage sensation A.V. Jayaveena won her third bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke while her elder brother Jayawant Vijaya Kumar earned a bronze in a tough field of 100m freestyle.
Services' Sanjeev Rajput too was on the high picking up his sixth gold medal, third individual, in the men's 50m rifle three position. Both his qualifying and final scores were new records.
Defending champion Orissa retained the football gold edging past Manipur 2-1 in the women's football final at Jamshedpur. Bengal downed Tamil Nadu 1-0 for the bronze.
Manipur and Kerala annexed two gold medals while Punjab and Services had one each on the second day of the cycling event. Services won the men's artistic team title in gymnastics with 394.0500 points relegating favourite Uttar Pradesh to silver position. Despite the presence of Guangzhou Asian Games' bronze medallist Ashish Kumar in its rank, UP stumbled. AP took the bronze.
The women's team title went to Maharashtra (219.8500). Bengal and AP finished second and third.
Jharkhand and Assam cornered the major share of gold medals in the lawn bowls events. The host picked up four golds, two silvers and as many bronze while Assam bagged 3-2-2. The last gold went to Bihar. Apart from Arunachal, Bengal and Meghalaya, Kerala and Rajasthan also won bronze medals. Eight gold and silver medals and 16 were on offer in this discipline.
The results:
Aquatics: Men, 100m freestyle: 1. Virdhawal Khade (Mah) 51.30s (NMR, old 52.80 by Khade, 07), 2. Rohit Havaldar (Kar) 54.02, 3. Jayawant Vijaya Kumar (TN) 54.41. 100m breaststroke: 1. Sandeep Sejwal (MP) 1:03.85s (NMR, old 1:06.76 in heats), 2. Puneet Rana (Har) 1:05.47, 3. Jashandeep Singh (Pun) 1:07.56.
Women, 100m freestyle: 1. Talasha Prabhu (Goa) 1:00.01s, 2. Richa Mishra (Del) 1:00.92, 3. Arti Ghorpade (Mah) 1:01.88. 100m breaststroke: 1. Poorve Shetye (Mah) 1:18.84s, 2. Richa Mishra (Del) 1:20.81, 3. A.V. Jayaveena (TN) 1:21.46. 1m springboard: 1. Hrutika Shriram (Mah) 177.00, 2. Swati Vidap (Mah) 139.20, 3. Karishma M. Mohite (Kar) 134.05.
Waterpolo, men's final: Kerala bt Services 8-6, 3rd place: Maharashtra bt Bengal 8-6. Women's final: Kerala bt Delhi 7-1; 3rd place: Maharashtra bt Karnataka 6-3.
Shooting, rifle 3 position men: 1. Sanjeev Rajput (Ser) 1171 (q), 1271.8 (f) (NMR, old 1161 (q), 1254.7 (f) by A.B. Subbaiah, 02), 2. Imran Hasan Khan (Ser) 1261.0, 3. Satyendra Singh (Ser) 1258.4. Team: Services (Rajput, Khan, Singh) 3499 points, 2. UP 3430, 3. Maharashtra 3375.
Cycling: Men, 1000m time trial: 1. O. Bikram Singh (Mnp) 1:11.268s, 2. Vikram Duhan (Har) 1:11.961, 3. Amrit Singh (Pun) 1:13.296. Team sprint: 1. Punjab (Hitraj, Gurbaj, Amrit) 1:09.995s, 2. Services 1:11.988, 3. Kerala 1:14.567. 4k.m. individual pursuit: 1. Sombir Singh (Ser) 5:02.892, 2. Harpreet (Pun) 5:04.580, 3. Sarpreet (Pun) 5:14.274.
Women, 500m time trial: 1. Ch. Rameshori Devi (Mnp) 39.625s, 2. Mahitha Mohan (Ker) 40.460, 3. Kezia Verghese (Ker) 42.322. Team sprint: 1. Kerala (Rejani, Mahitha, Kezia) 1:18.212s, 2. Manipur 1:19.346, 3. Punjab 1:23.839. 3 km. individual pursuit: 1. Mahitha Mohan (Ker) – overlap, 2. Th. Helen Devi (Mnp) – overlap, 3. Rekha (Pun) 4:35.339.
