Shruti bounces back with a vengeance

By Our Special Correspondent

BAREILLY, JUNE 20. On what turned out to be near-perfect day for holder Maharashtra, Shruti Reddy bounced back to form with a vengeance with three golds, including one in the medley relay, and almost sank Karnataka's hopes of regaining the overall honours in the National sub-junior aquatics championship at the Agarwal pool here on Tuesday.

In the six individual and two relay finals in swimming for the day, Maharashtra won everything except the 50m freestyle in boys' group IV. Shruti and her teammate Anujoy Bardhan emerged as the fastest swimmers in Group III after another Maharashtra girl Triparna Chakravarty had led the state's 1-2 in the 50m freestyle in group IV.

In diving, too, Maharashtra had a lot to cheer about. Trushna Patel completed a clean sweep of three gold medals in girls' group III after adding the three-metre springboard title. The Sholapur girl's exploits, coupled with Yateen Shah's gold, completed Maharashtra's domination in the group. Karnataka won two golds, but that was little consolation after its most forgettable day in any age-group aquatic Nationals in a long time. The only consolation for Karnataka was V. Bharat Kumar's victory in the group IV.

Shruti, on a high after leading Maharashtra to the freestyle relay gold in the last event on Monday, did not put a foot wrong on this day. For the first time in three days in any individual event, Shruti finished ahead of her Karnataka rival V. Sivaranjini when she won the 100m butterfly gold. She then went on to add the 50m freestyle title before dashing the Karnataka hopes of winning the medley relay.

Even as Shruti put behind the ordinary performances on the first two days, Sivaranjini struggled even in the two-lap butterfly event where she was considered the favourite. After Shruti's showing today, the race for the individual title in this group has hotted up with Sivaranjini still having to do some work to ensure the honour.

Maharashtra's Arjun Muralidharan won the 100m butterfly ahead of Karnataka's Manjunath and Tamil Nadu's B. Vinod Kumar and later took the silver in the 50m freestyle to stay in line for the individual title in group III.

Meanwhile, the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) has decided to go ahead with the National junior championship here from June 23 to 27. The SFI Secretary, Mr. Virender Nanawati, who arrived here on Monday night, admitted that the pool conditions were far below standards but assured marked improvement in a couple of days.

To make things better, 50 kilograms of chlorine granules have been brought from New Delhi. Soon after the events ended on Tuesday, the floor of the pool was to be cleaned and the water treated. Further, another 50-kg drum of granules and a 100- kg cylinder containing chlorine gas was also being booked from New Delhi. However, the filtration plant continues to be the source of worry.

Mr. Nanawati said all efforts were being made to hold the National juniors and the trials for the Asia-Pacific meet in better conditions. ``But this has been a learning experience. In

future, a SFI team would visit the venue at least 10 days before the meet and if it is not satisfied, the meet would be cancelled,'' said a visibly-chastened Nanawati.

The day also saw four boys, S. Saiju (Kerala), Somander Tokas (Delhi), Ravi Kumar Meetei and Ashok Kumar Singh (both Manipur) being debarred after failing to satisfy the SFI of their eligibility. Also, on a protest lodged by Tamil Nadu, Bengal's bronze-winning girls' freestyle relay team was scratched for fielding an under-age swimmer. Tamil Nadu was awarded the bronze.

The results:

Swimming: Boys (Group III): 50m freestyle: 1. Anujoy Bardhan (Mah) 28.99; 2. Aviroop Dutta (Ben) 29.07; 3. Arjun Muralidharan (Mah) 29.35; 100m butterfly: 1. Arjun Muralidharan (Mah) 1:07.40; 2. N. Manjunath (Kar) 1:08.01; 3. B. Vinod Kumar (TN) 1:08.99; 4 x 50m medley relay: 1. Maharashtra (Rohit Barve, Min Kwang Shu, Anujoy Bardhan and Arjun Muralidharan) 2:11.99; 2. Uttar Pradesh (Ramesh Kumar, Rahul Misra, Satyaprakash Yadav and Harender Yadav) 2:13.31; 3. Karnataka (N.S. Abhiram, V. Abhishek, N. Manjunath and Aniketh D'Souza) 2:17.53.

Group IV: 50m freestyle: 1. Bharat Kumar (Kar) 31.55; 2. Lava K. Nath (Kar) 32.10; 3. Pranoy Adhikari (Mah) 32.41.

Girls (Group III): 50m freestyle: 1. Shruti Reddy (Mah) 29.45; 2. V. Sivaranjini (Kar) 30.36; 3. Lisa Mahanta (Asm) 30.42; 100m butterfly: 1. Shruti Reddy (Mah) 1:10.71; 2. V. Sivaranjini (Kar) 1:11.45; 3. Ruksheen Palia (Mah) 1:11.61; 4 x 50m medley relay: 1. Maharashtra (Anshuka Parwani, Avani Shetty, Ruksheen Palia and Shruti Reddy) 2:18.42; 2. Karnataka (V. Sivaranjini, Swati Murthy, Sampada Sudarshan and Pradita P.) 2:18.86; 3. Kerala (Sumy Cyriac, K.S. Soumya, C. Sabunamol and M. Mini) 2:27.57.

Group IV: 50m freestyle: 1. Triparna Chakravarty (Mah) 32.00; 2. Pratiksha Ahuja (Mah) 32.23; 3. M.S. Nivedita (Kar) 33.45.

Diving: Boys (Group I): One-metre springboard: 1. Sandeep Misra (U.P.) 367.65 points; 2. Vinod Kumar Singh (U.P.) 349.90; 3. Anil K.S. 320.75.

Girls (Group I): One-metre springboard: 1. Mamoni Mondal (Ben) 260.85; 2. Vidita Powle (Mah) 258.80; 3. Szewinska D'Mello (Goa) 253.50.

Boys (Group II): Three-metre springboard: 1. Rahul Kutre (Kar) 281.35; 2. Mrinal Raikar (Goa) 263.90; 3. Jag Narain Singh (U.P.) 226.90.

Girls (Group II): Three-metre springboard: 1. Ashwini Mohite (Kar) 273.85; 2. Avani Shah (Mah) 241.30; 3. Deepa Amre (Goa) 211.70.

Boys (Group III): Three-metre springboard: 1. Yateen Shah (Mah) 209.95; 2. Rohan Sambrani (Mah) 178.15; 3. T. Jagdish Singh (Mani) 168.70.

Girls (Group III): Three-metre springboard: 1. Trushna T. Patel (Mah) 168.95; 2. Sayuli Raikar (Goa) 160.50; 3. Mou Bhattacharya (Ben) 159.50.

Shruti Reddy, who claimed three gold medals, winning the 100m butterfly gold in the National sub- junior aquatics championship at Bareilly on Tuesday.

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