National Games: Shrungi wins silver, Sanjana bronze in swimming

Panaji: Sanjana Prabhugaonkar and Shrungi Bandekar are leading Goa’s medal charge in swimming.

After Sanjana won two silver medals in the 100m backstroke and 200m freestyle silver, Friday saw Shrungi rise to the challenge with a silver in 200m IM, her pet event.

"I wanted to go two steps ahead. Last year, I won bronze and whatever I heard from others, I was leading initially," said Shrungi.

The Goan clocked 2:26.90 seconds to finish second behind Manavi Varma of Karnataka who broke Richa Sharma's record of 2:25.78 set in the Kerala Games in 2015 with a timing of 2:24.21.

Manavi's statemate Hashika Ramachandra claimed bronze.

Shrungi started well and took the lead in the first 100m. Later, she consolidated the lead in the backstroke. However, Manavi made up for lost ground with her expertise in breaststroke.

"I was confident that I will catch up, but when you swim, you don't think of others. You just focus on finishing. I came to know that I won silver when I looked up at the board. I am still very happy with my performance," said the 20-year-old.

Sanjana continued her sparkling form with another bronze in the women's 50m backstroke. This is Sanjana's fourth medal, taking her tally to two silver and two bronze medals. Her other bronze came in the 200m backstroke.

"When I set out for the National Games, my target was to keep improving my timings,” said Sanjana. “Medals will come. I still have another event in the 100m freestyle left. Let's see if I can top my performance with a gold."

Shrungi was in the lead at 20m. However, Ridhima Kumar of Karnataka and Soubrity Mondal of Bengal soon caught up. No one could figure out who won until the names flashed on the result chart according to the rank.

Sanjana stopped the clock at 30.80 seconds, while Ridhima (30.21) and Soubrity (30.59) took the gold and silver.


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