Eastern Railway retains team title

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM, SEPT. 12. Eastern Railway retained the swimming team championship and shared the waterpolo title with host Eastern Railway as the 42nd all-India Railway aquatics championship concluded here on Wednesday.

Sebastian Xavier of Southern Railway emerged the fastest swimmer of the meet while the talented Akbar Ali Mir of Eastern was adjudged the individual champion as well as the best swimmer of the championship.

Eastern won three more golds on the final day while Pankaj Das of SER created the only record of the day, in the 200 m butterfly, and Harish V. Analdas won the three-meter spring board diving gold for Western.

Eastern logged 187 points from swimming and diving while Southern logged 130 points to pip the host to third place with 124 points. Thus the last year's placings remained intact.

At the Aqua Sports Complex, Pankaj finished the 200 m butterfly race in 2:11.83, improving upon Southern swimmer Suresh Reddy's record of 2:11.89 by a fraction.

In other events, D. Bairagi and Akbar Ali Mir, both from Eastern, won the 50 m backstroke and 200 m individual medley and Eastern rounded off the show with a comfortable win in 4x100 m medley relay.

South Eastern and last year's winner and Eastern tied 7-7 at the end of regulation time in the waterpolo final at the Navy pool. Both teams decided to share the title instead of going for the extra time. Sanjay Jaiswal scored three goals for SER and was supported by Goutam Pal (2), Bisjet Das and S. Yadav (one each). Sankar Naskar was the top scorer for Eastern with three goals while Robin Bal Dev (2), Sudiptu Goswami and Sandeep Ghose (one each) were the other scorers.

Western Railway beat Southern Railway 10-5 to claim third place.

The results: Swimming: 200 m butterfly: 1. Pankaj Das (SER, 01:11.83, NMR), 2. Habib Ali Mir (ER), 3. K. Chakraborty (ER). Old record 01:11.89 by Suresh Reddy of SR.

50 m backstroke: 1. D. Bairagi (ER, 29.08 s), 2. Sivadasan (SR), 3. Sutanu Paul (SER); 200 m individual medley: 1. Akbar Ali Mir (ER, 2:17.66), 2. Regi Kumar (SR), 3. K. Haldar (SER); 4x100 m medley relay: 1. Eastern Railway (04:15.92), 2. Southern Railway, 3. South Eastern Railway.

Diving: Three-meter spring board: 1. Harish V. Analdas (Western, 253.40 points), 2. Sandeep Misra (Northern), 3. Umesh Prasad (NER).

Waterpolo: Final: South Eastern Railway drew with Eastern Railway 7-7. Third place: Western Railway bt Southern Railway 10-5.

Team championship (swimming and diving): 1. Eastern Railway (184 points), 2. Southern Railway (130), 3. South Eastern Railway (124).

Individual champion: Abkar Ali Mir of Eastern Railway.

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Section  : Sport
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