Sandeep Sejwal played his part to perfection in the two meet records witnessed on the opening day of the 64th National aquatic championship here but overall, the timings on view left much to be desired at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium pool on Tuesday.
The country's best in breaststroke in many years, Sejwal proved the saving grace of the day when he clocked 2:17.92 minutes for the gold in the four-lapper to shave off 0.93 seconds off his own record set last year.
Earlier in the day, Sejwal along with his Railway teammates Praveen Tokas, Tarun Tokas and J.P. Arjun set a meet record in the 4x100m medley relay, breaking the previous mark set by Karnataka last year.
The results: Men: 800m freestyle: 1. A.P. Gagan (Kar) 8:28.17, 2. Mandar Divase (Pol) 8:33.51, 3. Merwyn Chen (Rlys) 8:48.24.
200m backstroke: 1. Rohit Havaldar (Kar) 2:08.92, 2. Rehan Poncha (Kar) 2:09.22, 3. Praveen Tokas (Rlys) 2:10.04; 200m breaststroke: 1. Sandeep Sejwal (Rlys) 2:17.92 (NMR, old 2:18.85 Sandeep Sejwal, 2009), 2. Puneet Rana (Har) 2:21.06, 3. Anoop Augustine (Rlys) 2:26.53.
50m butterfly: Virdhawal Khade (Mah) 0:25.03, 2. Tarun Tokas (Rlys) 0:26.39, 3. Arjun Muralidharan (Pol) 0:26.39; 4x100m medley relay: 1. Railways 3:56.98 (NMR, 3:56.98, old 4:00.55 Karnataka, 2009), 2. Karnataka 4:04.58, 3. Police 4:08.98.
Women: 200m backstroke: 1. Ananya Panigrahi (Mah) 2:28.29, 2. Fariha Zaman (Kar) 2:33.75, 3. Heta Davey (MP) 2:34.42.
200m breaststroke: 1. M. Raghavi (TN) 2:49.32, 2. Poorva Shetye (Mah) 2:50.68, 3. Priyanka Priyadarshini (Del) 2:51.29. 50m butterfly: 1. Jyotsana Pansare (Mah) 0:29.35, 2. Talasha Prabhu (Goa) 0:29.59, 3. C. Shubha (Kar) 0:29.79.
4x100m medley relay: 1. Karnataka 4:41.44, 2. Maharashtra 4:42.27, 3. Tamil Nadu 4:56.38.
Diving: Highboard: Men: 1. Ch. Pushkar Meitei (Jha) 276.15 points; 2. Himanshu Tiwari (UP) 262.65; 3. Naveen Yadav (Rlys) 262.30.
Women: 1. Hrutika Shriram (Rlys) 214.65 points; 2. Deepti Panwar (Del) 179.75; 3. Jagruti Satarkar (Mah) 150.15.
Women: Karnataka bt Delhi 5-0; Kerala bt Bengal 8-0; Police bt Manipur 8-0.
