Karnataka jumped to the top of the medals table in swimming with five gold medals on the day, thanks mainly to the heroics of S.P. Likith, who had his hand on three of them, in the Khelo India Youth Games at the Balewadi Sports Complex here on Monday.
It was some sight, as Likith literally jumped out of the pool and ran to grab his clothes and shoes, after winning the 50m freestyle in the under-21 men’s section. It was as if he not only wanted to be the fastest swimmer of the meet, with his time of 24.15seconds, as he beat Xaiver D’Souza of Goa, by 0.2 seconds, but also wanted to be the fastest over that distance!
In a hurry
As it turned out, he was in a hurry as he had to compete in the 50m breaststroke soon after and later jumped into the pool again to help Karnataka win the 4x100m freestyle relay.
With Avinash Mani and C.J. Sanjay winning the 200m butterfly for men in the two age groups, apart from Deeksha Suresh beating Maana Patel by 0.14 points for the under-21 women’s 50m freestyle gold, Karnataka took its tally to 18 gold, 14 silver and nine bronze medals.
Maharashtra, which won two gold medals through Kenisha Gupta and Apeksha Fernandes in the women’s under-17 freestyle and butterfly events, took its gold collection to 16. It had 13 silver and nine bronze.
Kushagra Gupta won the only gold for Delhi this day, in the gruelling 1500m freestyle, as the team took its tally to 15 gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze.
Day’s best
Despite all the serious competition, it was Veer Khatkar of Haryana who celebrated the best in the pool, cutting nice poses to his friends, after winning the under-17 men’s 50m freestyle with a time of 24.71 seconds.
