Karnataka win overall championship trophy

Bhopal: With 268 points, Karnataka grabbed the overall championship trophy at the 73rd Glenmark National Swimming Championship that concluded at Prakash Taran Pushkar on Wednesday. Karnataka’s Srihari Nataraj and Shivani Kataria of Haryana were adjudged best swimmers in the men’s and women’s categories respectively.

The concluding day of the championship witnessed two new national records. Srihari Nataraj set a new national record in the 100 metres backstroke after clocking 55.63. Madhu P of SSCB won silver after completing the distance in 58.30, while Rakshit Shetty of Karnataka grabbed the third position with a timing of 58.89.

Kenisha Gupta of Maharashtra set new national record in the 100 metres freestyle. Clocking 58.26, she won the gold medal and also broke the national record. Shivani Kataria who was adjudged best women swimmer of the championship came second with a timing of 59.21.

The 35-year-old Richa Mishra won her fourth gold medal in the championship after winning the 800 metres freestyle. She clocked 9:22.50. Karnataka’s Khushi Dinesh (9:24.81) and Bhavya Sachdeva (9:31.41) of Delhi won the silver and bronze medals respectively.

The president of MP swimming Association, Piyush Sharma, said each national record holder was awarded a cash prize of Rs20,000 each. “NP Prajapati, who is the speaker of the MP legislative assembly has announced Rs2.8 lakh cash prize money for the national record holders of the championship. We are grateful to him,” he said.

The joint secretary of MP Swimming Association, Ram Kumar Khilrani said, “Bhopal has become an important venue in the country for hosting aquatic events. We have successfully conducted two national championships within a span of two years.” The 71st national championship was held at the same venue in 2017.


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