Karnataka's Saurabh Sangvekar set the best Indian time in 1500m, clocking 15:51.10s on the final day of the five-day 65th National aquatics meet at the Veer Budhu Bhagat Stadium here on Sunday. This was the 17-year-old's second National record of the meet.
Aaron D'Souza of Karnataka (100m freestyle), Sandeep Sejwal of Railways (100m breaststroke) and M. Raghavi of Tamil Nadu (100m breaststroke) also created records on a day when D'Souza and Richa Mishra of Police were crowned the best swimmers of the meet. Both won five individual gold medals and broke three records.
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Karnataka emerged the overall champion by collecting 327 points. The State also won the men's (164) and women's (163) team titles. Maharashtra ended second with 176 points and Railways (143) third.
Sangvekar, who was looking to clock the Olympic invitation time of 15:43.74s, was on target till 900m. Thereafter, according to National coach Pradeep Kumar, he failed to maintain the tempo and fell behind. His gold winning effort of 15:51.10s obliterated Mandar Divase's previous National best of 15:56.96 and the meet record of 16:06.64s.
“I need to clip about eight seconds to make it to the Olympic qualifying mark which I hope to achieve in a few months time,'' Sangvekar said.
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Sejwal, who had already made it to the London Olympics by clocking 1:02.62 (qualifying time is 1:02.92), lowered it further to 1:01.97.
This proved to be the meet record as well, besting his previous mark of 1:04.26s. The corresponding race for women was won by Tamil Nadu's Raghavi in 1:18.55s. The old record stood in the name of V. Tejaswini of Karnataka at 1:18.66. This was Raghavi's first gold medal in this event after having finished fourth last year at Jaipur.
Karnataka swimmers won a whopping 23 gold, 11 silver and nine bronze medals.
The results:Men: 100m freestyle: 1. Aaron D'Souza (Kar) 51.15s (NMR, old 51.43s: D'Souza, 2009), 2. Anshul Kothari (Guj) 53.06, 3. Amar Muralidharan (Mah) 53.77. 1500m freestyle: 1. Saurabh Sangvekar (Kar) 15:51.10s (NR, old 15:56.96s: Mandar Divase, 2009); Gagan A.P. (Kar) 16:19.22, 3. Mandar Divase (Pol) 16:20.70. 100m breaststroke: 1. Sandeep Sejwal (Rly) 1:01.97s (NMR, old 1:04.26: Sejwal, 2009), 2. Puneet Rana (Pol) 1:05.50, 3. Anoop Augustine (Rly) 1:08.64. 200m butterfly: 1. Aaron D'Souza (Kar) 2:02.22s, 2. Rehan Poncha (Kar) 2:04.38, 3. Sajan Prakash (Rly) 2:08.55. Women: 100m freestyle: 1. Surabhi Tipre (Kar) 1:00.28s, 2. Talasha Prabhu (Goa) 1:00.67, 3. Aditi Dhumatkar (Mah) 1:00.72. 100m breaststroke: 1. M. Raghavi (TN) 1:18.55s, (NMR, old 1:18.66: V. Tejaswini, 2006), 2. Poorva Shetye (Mah) 1:19.01, 3. Krunal Bhosale (Mah) 1:19.84. 200m butterfly: 1. Pooja R. Alva (Kar) 2:22.28s, 2. Aditi Dhumatkar (Mah) 2:25.04, 3. Rujuta Bhatt (Mah) 2:29.90.
Waterpolo (final):Men: Services bt Railways 8-7. Third place: Police bt Maharashtra 9-4.
Women: Kerala bt Police 7-1; Third place: Maharashtra bt Bengal 6-1. Best swimmer: Men: Aaron D'Souza. Women: Richa Mishra.
Team championship (swimming): Men: Karnataka (164 points). Women: Karnataka (163 points). Overall champion: Karnataka (327 points), 2. Maharashtra (176), 3. Railways (143).
Team championship (diving):Men: Railways (30 points). Women: Railways (26).