The Hindu : Karnataka regains overall title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 14, 2002

Sport

Sport - Swimming

Karnataka regains overall title

By our Special Correspondent

The best swimmers of the Maqintosh-National sub-junior aquatics championship, which concluded in Bangalore on Saturday. From left: Veer Dhaval Khade of Maharashtra (Group IV boys), V. Bharath Kumar of Karnataka (Group III boys), Shuba Chittaranjan of Karnataka (Group II girls) and Fariha Zaman of Assam (Group IV girls).

BANGALORE July 13. Karnataka regained the overall swimming title with an imposing tally of 346 points in the Maqintosh-National sub-junior aquatics championship, which concluded at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre pool here today.

Having taken an almost 50-point lead over the defending champion Maharashtra on the penultimate day, Karnataka's triumph was a foregone conclusion. Maharashtra finished second with 282 points. The host also won two of the four individual honours that were at stake. V. Bharath Kumar and Shubha Chittaranjan, with an individual haul of four golds each, emerged worthy winners in the Group III boys' and girls' sections respectively. The best swimmer awards in Group IV went to the lone record maker of the day, Fariha Zaman of Assam (girls) and Veer Dhaval Khade of Maharashtra (boys).

The performance on the final day generally was on a low key and records were hard to come by. For the simple reason that the existing records were set by the likes of Nisha Millet, Shikha Tandon and Elvis Ali Hazarika and they will surely take some beating.

The 11-year-old Fariha Zaman gave notice of her intention to break the 50m backstroke for Group IV girls, with 35.84 seconds in the heats. The Guwahati school girl, with none really to push her, then clocked 35.56 seconds to break the 13-year-old mark set by K. Jyotsana of Karnataka which stood at 35.76 seconds.

In Group III girls' section, the 13-year-old Shubha Chittaranjan went for her fourth gold with a nippy 1:04.85 to win the 100m freestyle, subduing her teammate Nivedita's spirited challenge. Nivedita, however, won the 100m backstroke.

The 100m freestyle race for Group III boys saw a nail biting finish with Bharath Kumar (1:02.06) touching ahead of his Assamese rival Manjyoti Rabha (1:02.14). Tamil Nadu's Susanth Krishna completed a backstroke double, winning the 100m race at 1:11.82 with a comfortable lead.

The Maharashtra Group IV bunch did well take to three golds on the concluding day and the winners were Sagar Patil (50m backstroke), Veer Dhaval Khade (100m freestyle) and Ruchi Shah (100m freestyle for girls).

Maharashtra tops in diving

It was Maharashtra all the way in the diving championship at the PMSC pool. It won the team titles in the boys' Group II, Group III and Group IV and in girls' Group III and Group IV.

Maharashtra divers also claimed the three individual honours that were at stake with the winners being Rohan Anil Sambrani (Group II boys), Hruthika Shriram (Group III girls) and Poonam Sanjiv Shah (Group IV girls). The other individual titles went to Kunj Kishore Singh of SSCB (Group I), Indra Krishna Dhaon of UP (Group III), Akash Panwar of Delhi (Group IV), Mamoni Mondal of West Bengal (Group I girls), Papiya Banerjee of West Bengal (Group II girls).

Swaraj Patil, the 15-year-old sibling of Indian international Viraj Patil avenged his defeat at the hands of Anil Sambrani on the high board and 3m spring board, with a new meet record of 321.60 points in the 1m spring board event for Group II boys. Swaraj, who thus broke Sachin Tripathi's 1997 effort of 319.85 points, seized the initiative from his rival with a splendid inward 1-1/2 somersault in `C' position with 2.2 degree of difficulty. His effort put a lot of pressure on Sambrani, who could not quite match his rival in the last few rounds.

Kunj Kishore Singh won the 1m spring board contest for Group I boys with 431.35 points, while the Group I girls' contest saw a keen fight between internationals Mamoni Mondal of West Bengal and Shruthi Shrivastava of Madhya Pradesh. Shruthi drew on all her experience to outwit her gritty rival with 288 points, while Mamoni bagged the silver with 284,60 points.

The results:

Swimming: Team championship winners: Boys: Group III: Karnataka - 114 pts; Group IV: Maharashtra - 80 pts.

Girls: Group III: Karnataka - 135 pts; Group IV: Maharashtra - 70 pts.

Overall champion: Karnataka - 346 pts.

Best swimmers: Boys: Group III: V. Bharath Kumar (Kar); Group IV: Veer Dhaval Khade (Mah).

Girls: Group III: Shubha Chittaranjan (Kar); Group IV: Fariha Zaman (Asm).

Boys: Group III: 100m freestyle: 1. V. Bharath Kumar (Kar, 1:02.06); 2. Majyoti Rabha (Asm, 1:02.14); 3. R.H. Rohit (Kar, 1:03.00).

100m backstroke: 1. Susant Krishna (TN, 1:11.82); 2. Dhaval Bharitkar (Mah, 1:12.52); 3. R.H. Rohit (Kar, 1:12.97).

Group IV: 100m freestyle: 1. Veer Dhaval Khade (Mah, 1:06.76); 2. Sheraz Jason (Kar, 1:07.19); 3. Anukul Shenoy (Mah, 1:09.38).

50m backstroke: 1. Sagar Patil (Mah, 35.36); 2. Aditya Kamat (Mah, 36.52); 3. S. Premnath (TN, 37.06).

Girls: Group III: 100m freestyle: 1. Shubha Chittaranjan (Kar, 1:04.85); 2. M.S. Nivedita (Kar, 1:06.74); 3. Supriya Bhosale (Mah, 1:07.95).

100m backstroke: 1. M.S. Niveditha (Kar, 1:15.47); 2. V. Tejaswini (Kar, 1:16.99); 3. P. Mukherjee (AP, 1:19.91).

Group IV: 100m freestyle: 1. Ruchi Sharma (Mah, 1:08.67); 2. B. Neeraja (Kar, 1:09.85); 3. Parita Parekh (Guj, 1:10.83).

50m backstroke: 1. Fariha Zaman (Asm, 35.56) (NMR, old: K. Jyotsna, Kar - 1989, 35.76); 2. Ruchi Shah (Mah, 37.12); 3. R. Aishwarya (Mah, 39.20).

Diving: Team championships winners:

Boys: Group I: Services, 17 pts; Group II: Maharashtra, 36 pts; Group III: Maharashtra, 24 pts; Group IV: 19 pts.

Girls: Group I: West Bengal, 28 pts; Group II: West Bengal, 29 pts; Group III: Maharashtra, 29 pts; Group IV: Maharashtra, 22 pts.

Best divers: Boys: Group I: M. Kunj Kishore Singh (Services, 14 pts); Group II: Rohan Anil Sambrani (Mah, 19); Group III: Indra Krishna Dhaon (UP, 15); Group IV: Akash Panwar (Del, 9).

Girls: Group I: Mamoni Mondal (WB, 17); Group II: Papiya Banerjee (WB, 19); Group III: Hruthika Shriram (Mah, 19); Group IV: Poonam Sanjeev Shah (Mah, 14).

1m spring board: Boys: Group I: 1. M. Kunj Kishore Singh (Services, 431.35 pts); 2. Radit Datta (Del, 388.85); 3. Rahul A. Kutre (Kar, 376.35 pts).

Group II: 1. Swaraj Patil (Mah, 321.60) (NMR, old: 319.85 by Sachin Tripathi, UP, 1997); 2. Rohan Anil Sambrani (Mah, 288); 3. Jagdish Singh (Manipur, 240.15).

Girls: Group I: 1. Shruthi Shrivastava (MP, 288); 2. Mamoni Mondal (WB, 284.60); 3. Shwetha S. Joshi (Mah, 280.80).

Group II: 1. Papiya Banerjee (WB, 217.65); 2. Rasika Shriram (Mah, 212.25); 3. Pratha Kshirsagar (MP, 196.60).

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

Stories in this Section

Cricket

Kaif and Yuveraj author India's sensational win

Never-say-die Robin takes on a new role

Golf

Atwal makes cut, Chiranjeev falters

Hockey

ONGC stuns Air India

Racing : Motor

MRF India Cup in December

Sports : General

Sport Digest

Swimming

Karnataka regains overall title

Shooting

Jaspal keeping his fingers crossed