Home favourite Richa Mishra clipped almost 10 seconds off Shikha Tandon's 10-year-old National record in the 800m freestyle and Tamil Nadu's M.B. Balakrishnan improved his own National mark in the 50m backstroke to inject some life into the Federation Cup aquatic championship at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Aquatic Centre here on Wednesday.
Richa swam the 16-lapper unchallenged in 9:10.96 minutes to erase Shikha's effort of 9:20.56 established in April, 2000. Karnataka's Sushaka Pratap followed in 9:51.55 well after Richa had got her breath back.
After Richa set the tone with the first final of the evening, Balakrishnan got into the act. He won the one-lapper in 0:26.96 seconds to re-write his own previous record of 0:27.56 clocked in the 2009 National championship.
In contrast, star attraction Virdhawal Khade disappointed with his winning timing in the 50m butterfly. After winning the heat in 0:25.00 seconds, he took longer to win the gold in 0:25.08, clearly failing to motivate himself in the absence of any serious challenge.
Sandeep Sejwal continued to impress in spite not being able to break his own record in the 50m breast stroke. He clocked 0:29.15 to stay outside his National record of 0:28.77 set in Paris in June last year.
Sejwal is clearly pushing himself in the meet despite lacking meaningful competition.
Similarly, National record holder Fariha Zaman clocked an impressive 0:31.85 in the 50m backstroke but fell short of her own national mark of 0:31.22.
The results (finals): Men: 200m freestyle: 1. Rohit Havaldar (Kar) 1:55.88; 2. Anshul Kothari (Guj) 1:59.83; 3. Jaywant Vijay Kumar (TN) 2:01.31; 50m backstroke: 1. M.B. Balakrishnan (TN) 0:26.96; 2. Rohit Havaldar (Kar) 0:28.70; 3. Praveen Tokas (Rlys) 0:29.33; 50m breast stroke: 1. Sandeep Sejwal (Rlys) 0:29.15; 2. J.P. Arjun (Rlys) 0:30.42; 3. Puneet Rana (Pun) 0:30.57; 50m butterfly: 1. Virdhawal Khade (Mah) 0:25.08; 2. M.B. Balakrishnan (TN) 0:26.59; 3. Tarun Tokas (Del) 0:27.05; 400m Individual Medley: 1. Merwyn Chen (Rlys) 04:50.99; 2. Aditya Sangwekar (Rlys) 05:00.37; 3. K.M. Vishnu (Ser) 05:03.39; 4x100 freestyle relay: 1. Railways (3:47.08); 2. Services (3:52.89); 3. Delhi (3:56.48).
Men (Para): 100m freestyle: 1. Prashanta Karmarkar (Har) 01:03.75; 2. Sharath Gaekwad (Kar) 01:06.38; 3. Sachin Verma (MP) 01:06.69.
Women: 200m freestyle: 1. Arti Ghorpade (Mah) 2:13.09; 2. Subha Chittaranjan (Kar) 2:18.68; 3. Vani Sahni (Del) 2:23.13; 800m freestyle: 1. Richa Mishra (Pol) 09:10.96; 2. Sushaka Pratap (Kar) 9:51.55; 3. Srishti Tandon (Raj) 09:56.79; 50m backstroke: 1. Fariha Zaman (Kar) 0:31.85; 2. Aarsi Poddar (Ben) 0:33.12; 3. Amreen Malik (AP) 0:33.91; 50m breast stroke: 1. Priyanka Priyadarshini (Del) 0:35.64; 2. Mankiran Kaur (Pun) 0:36.39; 3. Aarsi Poddar (Ben) 0:39.90; 50m butterfly: 1. Subha Chittaranjan (Kar) 0:29.58; 2. Heta Davey (MP) 0:30.58; 3. T. Sneha (Kar) 0:31.17; 4x100 freestyle relay: 1. Karnataka (4:17.51); 2. Delhi (04:27.80); 3. AP (4:50.90).
Women (Para): 100m freestyle: 1. Kanchal Yogesh (Mah) 01:25.50; 2. Kiran Tak (Raj) 01:26.05; 3. Vineeta Pathak (MP) 01:47.47.
