Dominant Karnataka crowned champions

Bengaluru: Karnataka continued their domination in the pool and were fittingly crowned the overall champions at the Senior National Aquatic Championships on Friday.
At the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre, they ended the campaign with 36 medals comprising 17 gold, 10 silver and nine bronze. This is Karnataka’s 30th overall championship title at the Senior Nationals.Maharashtra finished second followed by Delhi.


Karnataka also clinched the men and women's honours. Srihari Nataraj of Karnataka was adjudged the best male swimmer while Maharashtra's Apeksha Fernandes was the best among women.
On the final day, in the 200m freestyle, Srihari Nataraj clinched the gold with a new meet record of 1:49.78s. He eclipsed Sajan Prakash’s mark of 1:50.35 clocked in 2018. Delhi's Kushagra Rawat (1:52.24), who won three gold medals with three national records to his name in this meet, finished second while Tanish George Mathew (1:52.34) of Karnataka settled for the bronze. “This was one race I was looking forward to because Kushagra was swimming too and he has been in good form. I’ve worked hard for my freestyle events more than backstroke actually and it feels good to have won the race and also bettered the national record,” said Srihari, who also won gold in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:04.20s. In the 100m butterfly, Sajan of Kerala Police sank his own record of 53.46 seconds with a 53.24 effort to win the gold. Karnataka's junior stars Shoan Ganguly and Ridhima Veerendra Kumar signed off with gold medals. Shoan won the 400m medley with a time of 4:30.52, missing Rehan Poncha’s 12-year-old record by a whisker. Poncha’s record stands at 4:30.13. Ridhima, 17, topped the 200m backstroke cloking a time of 2:21.58s.
Results: Men: 200m freestyle: 1. Srihari Nataraj (Kar) 1:49.78 (NMR, OR: Sajan Prakash 1:50.35, 2018), 2. Kushagra Rawat (Del) 1:52.24, 3. Tanish George Mathew (Kar) 1:52.34. 200m backstroke: 1. Srihari Nataraj (Kar) 2:04.20, 2. Utkarsh Santosh Patil (Kar) 2:06.78, 3. Siddhant Sejwal (Del) 2:09.82.100m breaststroke: 1. Lohit M (RSPB) 1:04.24, 2. Danush S (TNSA) 1:04.24, 3. Arun S (SSCB) 1:04.75.100m butterfly: 1. Sajan Prakash (Pol) 53.24 (NMR, OR: Sajan Prakash 53.46, 2018), 2. Mihir Ambre (Mah) 54.93, 3. Adhithya D (TNSA) 55.72.400m medley: 1. Shoan Ganguly (Kar) 4:30.52, 2. Siva S (Kar) 4:36.38, 3. Sai Nihar Bikkina (Tel) 4:42.28. Women: 200m freestyle: 1. Shivangi Sarma (Asm) 2:07.10, 2. Shivani Kataria (Har) 2:10.46, 3. Aanya Wala (Mah) 2:11.69, 3. 200m backstroke: 1. Ridhima Veerendra Kumar (Kar) 2:21.58, 2. Soubriti Mondal (Ben) 2:24.85, 3. Shrungi Rajesh Bandekar (Goa) 2:28.27. 100m breaststroke: 1. Chahat Arora (Pun) 1:17.01, 2. Harishitha Jayaram (RSPB) 1:17.57, 3. Lineysha AK (Kar) 1:17.77. 100m butterfly: 1. Apeksha Fernandes (Mah) 1:03.38, 2. Astha Choudhury (Asm) 1:03.83, 3. Divya Satija (Har) 1:04.55.400m medley: 1. Richa Mishtra (Pol) 5:14.69, 2. Kanya Nayyar (MP) 5:15.63, 3. Shakthi Balakrishnan (TNSA) 5:17.34. Overall champions: Karnataka (300 points); Men's champions: Karnataka (119 points). Women's champions: Karnataka (77 points).Best swimmer: Men: Srihari Nataraj. Women: Apeksha Fernandes. Diving team champions: Men: winner: SSCB (29 points); Runner-up: RSPB (16 points). Women: Winner: RSPB (19 points); Runner-up: Police (17 points).