The Hindu : Aquatics: New National marks by Shikha and Richa

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 21, 2002

Sport

Sport - National Games

Aquatics: New National marks by Shikha and Richa

By A. Vinod

HYDERABAD Dec. 20. It was another hectic day in office for Shikha Tandon at the pool on Friday, who provided a fitting finale to the aquatics events of the Games. Shikha won two of the three contests in the women's section today and that too at the expense of arch rival Richa Mishra (AP) in both the events. En route, the Bangalore girl also bettered the existing National record of Nisha Millet in the 200m backstroke besides emerging as the first swimmer of her section to do the 100m freestyle under 1-minute, within the country.

Technically, Shikha's time of 0:59.71 could be read by some as a new National record as the Swimming Federation of India, given its failure to recognise those marks created outside its senior National championship, is yet to recognise the Karnataka girl's own effort of 0:58.49 in the final of the 14th Asian Games held in Busan, earlier this year. And this again only goes on prove on how the SFI needs to keep abreast of the changing times. It is high time SFI realised how its list of National record could be misleading as the benchmark credited in it is still Nisha Millet's 1997 timing of 1:01.21.

Richa Mishra won her seventh individual gold with a new National mark in the 200m butterfly in 2:23.95, surpassing Meghna Narayan's 2:25.34 by a wide margin. Richa was named the Swimmer of the Meet in her section.

That honour in the men's section went to Karnataka's Rehan Poncha though he finished a poor fourth in the 100m backstroke.

This event saw Kerala's T.K. Senthil Kumar completing a golden treble. He earlier won the 50m and 200m backstroke events. Akbar Ali Mir of Bengal who won the silver clocked 1:01.54, Senthil also eclipsed a 15-year-old meet record set by Wilson Cherian in 1987.

Deepak Kumar Singh won the 200m breaststroke with a new meet record. For T.A. Sujith (Services), the 100m freestyle title was an addition to the 50m gold that he won on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Kerala picked up the waterpolo golds in both the men's and women's sections. While Kerala men shocked National champion Services 8-7 at extra-time, its women was a facile 6-2 winner over Maharashtra.

* The results: Men:100m freestyle: 1. T.A. Sujith (SSCB), 0:54.03, 2. Rahul Batra (Kar), 0:54.80, 3. Amar Muralidharan (AP), 0:55.21. 100m backstroke: 1. T.K. Senthil Kumar (Ker), 1:01.54 - NMR; OR - 1:01.56, Wilson Cherian, 1987, 2. Akbar Ali Mir (Ben), 1:02.19, 3. Dipesh Bairagyi (Ben), 1:03.26. 200m breaststroke: 1. Deepak Kumar Singh (AP), 2:29.85 - NMR; OR - 2:31.93, Umesh Tokas, 1997, 2. B. Vinay (Kar), 2:34.01, 3. Puneet Rana (Pun), 2:34.46.

Women: 100m freestyle: 1. Shikha Tandon (Kar), 0:59.71 - NMR; OR - 1:01.21, Nisha Millet, 1997, 2. Reshma Millet (Kar), 1:01.66, 2. Richa Mishra (AP), 1:01.66. 200m backstroke: 1. Shikha Tandon (Kar), 2:30.32 - NNR; OR- 2:30.79, Nisha Millet, 1997, 2. Nisha Millet (Kar), 2:31.78, 3. Richa Mishra (AP), 2:31.79. 200m butterfly: 1. Richa Mishra (AP), 2:23.95 - NNR; OR - 2:25.34, Meghna Narayan, 1997, 2. Archana Bhushan (Kar), 2:33.36, 3. K. Chitra (Kar), 2:35.06.

Waterpolo: Men (final): Kerala bt Service 9-8 (at extra-time). Losers' final: Bengal bt Maharashtra 8-7. Women (final): Kerala bt Maharashtra 6-2.

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