Chen authors another impressive victory

By Our Sports Reporter

MADGAON, JULY 8. Another record tumbled, as Karnataka wrested three relay golds in the 28th junior National aquatic meet at the Fatorda swimming pool here on Sunday.

The reigning champion scripted a new record in the boys Group I 4 x 100m medley relay. However, Maharashtra's gold in the girls Group II relay and the heroics of Bengal's Sudeep Chatterjee and Delhi's Merwyn Chen helped briefly check Karnataka's charge.

The Karnataka quartet of A. Akshaya, Rohan D'Souza, Ashwin Kumar and Rahul Batra notched up a new record with 4:19.34s in the boys Group I 4 x 100m medley relay. Their new mark obliterated the previous best of 4:19.50s, which again belonged to Karnataka.

Early jitters did hamper Akshaya, as she trailed Maharashtra's Jay Shah in the opening backstroke. However, fortune swung Karnataka's way when Rohan surged ahead in the breast stroke section. The lone threat of Bengal's Akbar Ali was negated and Ashwin Kumar and Rahul Batra finished off the relay in style.

Karnataka's relay juggernaut rolled on in the boys Group II and girls Group I 4 x 100m medley events. The stumbling block proved to be a spirited Maharashtra girls Group II team, which snatched a gold in the 4 x 100m medley. Shruthi Reddy, Manasi Shelke, Pooja Ghorpade and Avani Shah paused for a second before launching into whoops of delight. It was understandable, they had just dwarfed Karnataka, as Maharashtra clocked 5:03.38s. Ambica N.S. Iyengar did churn out a last-gasp effort but it proved futile, as Karnataka secured the second spot at 5:04.30s.

Ambica drew solace from her third individual gold in the championship when she topped the Group II 100m butterfly at 1:08.99s. Ambica reiterated her potential and reined in Maharashtra's Mansi Shelke and State-mate S. Sampada.

In the Karnataka-Maharashtra battle for extra points, a few other State competitors did manage to carve their own space. A Delhi lad of Chinese origin and a Bengali class twelve student did make their marks. Delhi's Merwyn Chen trailed Karnataka's M.N. Siddharth in the boys Group II 400m freestyle event, until the last lap. But in his inimitable patented style, Merwyn shifted gears and pipped Siddharth. Merwyn clocked 4:32.06s to Siddharth's 4:33.34s.

Sudeep Chatterjee had a few points to prove in the Group I 100m butterfly. Primarily his one point agenda was to retain his defending champion tag. He did that in style leaving a packed opposition of Amar Muralidharan (Maharashtra), Ashwin Kumar and Rahul Batra (both Karnataka) left to scramble other minor positions. Sudeep clocked 59.83s, while narrowly missing Assam lad Elvis Hazarika's National record of 59.58s.

In the list of dark horses, Tamil Nadu girl Saba Sait figured high. She lived upto her billing, winning the Group I 50m breast stroke at 37.49s. She edged past Maharashtra's Madhura Patil and State-mate Kristin Boezalt.

Karnataka and Maharashtra bagged five golds apiece here on Sunday and continued their dominance over the junior meet.

The results:

Swimming:

Boys:

Group I: 50m breast stroke: 1. Rohan D'Souza (Kar - T: 33.19s), 2. Varun Kalra (Del - 34.40), 3. Anupam Saha (Ben - 34.41); 100m butterfly: Sudeep Chatterjee (Ben - 59.83), 2. Amar Muralidharan (Mah - 1:00.86), 3. Ashwin Kumar (Kar - 1:01.02); 400m freestyle: 1. Amar Muralidharan (Mah - 4:19.40), 2. Mandar Divse (Mah - 4:30.93), 3. Ankur Kanojia (Kar - 4:35.65); 4 x 100m medley: 1.

Karnataka (A. Akshaya, Rohan D'Souza, Ashwin Kumar and Rahul Batra - 4:19.34 NR, old: 4:19.50, Karnataka, 2000), 2. Bengal (4:22.05), 3. Delhi (4:27.37).

Group II: 50m breast stroke: 1. I. Shivananda (Man - 34.23), 2. Indrajit Bhowmik (Ben - 34.90), 3. Sonam Lama (Mah - 35.36); 100m butterfly: 1. Umapad Naskar (Ben - 1:03.55), 2. Arjun Muralidharan (Mah - 1:03.71), 3. S. Srinand (Kar - 1:06.13); 400m freestyle: 1. Merwyn Chen (Del - 4:32.06), 2. M.N. Siddarth (Kar - 4:33.34), 3. Loknath Char (Mah - 4:35.57); 4 x 100m medley: 1. Karnataka (4:28.70), 2. Maharashtra (4:30.49), 3. Bengal (4:40.44).

Girls:

Group I: 50m breast stroke: 1. Saba Sait (TN - 37.49), 2. Madhura Patil (Mah - 37.92), 3. Kristin Boezalt (TN - 40.72); 100m butterfly: 1. Richa Mishra (Del - 1:08.02), 2. Archana Bhushan (Kar - 1:11.11), 3. Divya R. Maiya (Kar - 1:12.70); 400m freestyle: 1. Avani Sawant (Mah - 4:51.29), 2. Amritha Shetty (Kar - 4:56.07), 3. Rashika Shridhar (Kar - 5:16.47); 4 x 100m medley: 1. Karnataka (4:53.44), 2. Maharashtra (5:01.63), 3. Delhi (5:09.08).

Group II: 50m breast stroke: 1. Manshi Shelke (Mah - 38.88), 2. S. Sampada (Kar - 39.13), 3. Shruti Gupta (Del - 39.57); 100m butterfly: 1. Ambica N.S. Iyengar (Kar - 1:08.99), 2. Mansi Shelke (Mah - 1:11.29), 3. S. Sampada (Kar - 1:11.56); 400m freestyle: 1. Ruksheen Palia (Mah - 4:45.90), 2. S. Arpitha (Kar - 5:04.80), 3. Prakruti P. Rao (Kar - 5:01.40); 4 x 100m medley: 1. Maharashtra (5:03.38), 2. Karnataka (5:04.30), 3. Kerala (5:20.65).

Water-polo:

Boys (semifinals): Kerala 5 (Sujith Krishnan 2, V.D. Shrivi Sakshi 2, V. Anil Kumar 1) bt Maharashtra 4 (Sabu Prabhakaran 1, Sanket Shinde 1, Harshad Barve 1, Shashank Pilankar 1); Bengal 13 (Robin Reddy 4, Shankar Naskar 2, Ramchandra Haldar 2, Prosanjit Bannerjee 1, Hafiz Dhali 1, Laxman Haldar 1, Amitabh Patodia 1, Rafiq Shaikh 1) bt Punjab 2 (Rohit Mehta 2).

Girls (league): Maharashtra 9 (Smita Gawhane 3, Rujuta Deshpande 3, Meghana Chitale 2, G. Sailee 1) bt Kerala 3 (P.K. Prajitha 2, B. Pramila 1).

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