The Hindu : Rehan sets sights on Olympic qualification

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 28, 2003

Sport

Sport - Swimming

Rehan sets sights on Olympic qualification

By Our Sports Reporter

Ambica N.S. Iyengar, who won the 200m breaststroke in the junior National aquatic championship in New Delhi on Friday. Right Maharashtra's Pooja Ghorpade on way to winning the 200m butterfly gold.

NEW DELHI JUNE 27. Star swimmer Rehan Poncha posted a unique achievement by winning all his events in National record time, at the 30th junior National swimming championship at the Talkatora Complex here on Friday.

Poncha bested his own National record in the Group I boys 200 metre butterfly, which he won in 2 minutes 09.20 seconds.

Poncha had set the earlier record (2:10.26) in the 2002 Chennai Nationals.

"This is my event in which I am serious about qualifying for the Olympic Games,'' Poncha said after winning his fourth gold medal of the championship.

"I would be happy to drop to 2:06 or 2:05 in the Barcelona World championships. Then there are several qualifying events leading to the Olympic Games,'' he said.

The Asian age-group championship in China later this year is what Poncha is eying.

The Olympic qualification time in 200m butterfly is 2:04s.

On Friday, as it had been for last three days, Poncha was hardly pushed. Clearly he was setting the pace for himself, something that he does not relish. "In Australia (he had a three-month training in Perth) you have 30-odd swimmers faster than me. So it helps to get better timing there,'' Poncha said.

The fourth day of the championship brought a variety on the podium as Karnataka, though it maintained its dominance, could gather only nine of the 16 gold medals on offer. Maharashtra won four, Bengal two and Delhi one gold medal.

In the Group II boys 200m butterfly final, Aditya Sangwekar led a surprise 1-2 finish for Maharashtra as Karnataka failed to get a podium finish.

Sangwekar, though much slower than Poncha's National record (2:12.18), was home on 2:20.36. Ajinkya Tarkunde (2:30.10) came second while V. Aditya (2:36.91) won bronze for Tamil Nadu.

In the boys' water polo championship, Bengal and Kerala took contrasting routes to the final.

Bengal rode on the good work by Supratik Mondal (5) and Sribas Sarkar (3) to beat Maharashtra, in a repeat of last year's final.

For Maharashtra, Akshay Kurwekar and Sumit Gawhane scored three goals each. In the second semifinal Kerala thrashed Punjab 10-0.

In the girls' section, Karnataka edged past Kerala 5-4 to set up title clash against the defending champion, Maharashtra, on Saturday. Maharashtra beat Bengal 4-2.

India's top woman swimmer Richa Mishra has warmed herself for a possible Olympic qualification by clocking 1.48 seconds below the Olympic qualification time, the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) announced here.

In the Hungarian Nationals, Richa clocked 2:16.28 in the 200m butterfly event ahead of the upcoming World championships in Barcelona next month.

The Olympic Qualification time in 200m butterfly is 2:17.76. Richa has been practicing in Hungary for last few months.

The results: swimming: Boys: Group I: 50m freestyle: 1. Aniketh D'Souza (Kar) 25.07s; 2. Samir Das (Ben) 25.54; Parikshit Shetty (Mah) 25.66. 1,500m freestyle: 1. Chetan Sharma (Kar) 17:57.00; 2. Bipin C. (Kar) 18:27.78; 3. Rahil Parekh (Mah) 18:35.30. 200m butterfly: 1. Rehan Poncha (Kar) 2:09.20 NR (old 2:10.26); 2. Arjun Muralidharan (Mah) 2:11.11; 3. Srinand Srinivas (Kar) 2:15.22. 200m breaststroke: 1. Gairik Bardhan (Ben) 2:31.95; 2. Abhishek V. (Kar) 2:39.33; 3. Rohit Kumar (Del) 2:41.29.

Group II: 50m freestyle: 1. Bharat Kumar V. (Kar) 26.94s; 2. S. Satheesh (TN) 28.09; 3. Karthik B. S. (Kar) 28.13. 800m freestyle: 1. Rohith R. Hawaldar (Kar) 9:30.97; 2. Rohit Gupta (Del) 9:42.31; 3. S. Suresh Kumar (TN) 9:47.11. 200m butterfly: 1. Aditya Sangwekar (Mah) 2:20.36; 2. Ajinkya Tarkunde (Mah) 2:30.10; 3. V. Aditya (TN) 2:36.91. 200m breaststroke: 1. Sandeep Sejwal (Del) 2:43.53; 2. Arjun J. P. (Kar) 2:43.82; 3. Yashodhan Lonkar (Mah) 2:44.76.

Girls: Group I: 50m freestyle: 1. Amrapali Das Gupta (Ben) 29.10s; 2. Lisa Mahanta (Asm) 29.84; 3. Sajani Patel (Guj) 29.93. 1,500m freestyle: 1. V. Sivaranjini (Kar) 19:04.09; 2. Chandani K. (Kar) 20:37.19; 3. Deepti Venkatesh (Mah) 20:38.94. 200m butterfly: 1. Pooja Ghorpade (Mah) 2:37.97; 2. Aparna A. (Kar) 2:42.96; 3. Ruksheen Palia (Mah) 2:43.99. 200m breaststroke: 1. Ambica N. S. Iyengar (Kar) 2:51.49; 2. Tejashree Ganapatye (Mah) 3:00.78; 3. Mrudula D. (Kar) 3:01.14.

Group II: 50m freestyle: 1. Tejaswini V. (Kar) 30.53s. 2. Steffi Antony Thomas (Kar) 30.81; 3. Puja Kabur (Mah) 31.16. 800m freestyle: 1. Justine Mellocastro (Mah) 10:26.40; 2. Amritha R. Kumar (Kar) 10:30.07; 3. Shaloka Joshi (Del) 11:03.44. 200m butterfly: 1. Shubha C. (Kar) 2:39.11; 2. Vaishnavi M. (Kar) 2:40.43; 3. Meesha Roy (Del) 2:48.83. 200m breaststroke: 1. Nimisha Gupta (Mah) 2:59.34; 2. Niveditha M. S. (Kar) 3:01.43; 3. Prerana S. Jain (Kar) 3:02.05.

Waterpolo: semifinals: Boys: Bengal bt Maharashtra 11-7; Kerala bt Punjab 10-0.

Girls: Karnataka bt Kerala 5-4; Maharashtra bt Bengal 4-2.

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