Sport - Swimming   

Xavier emerges fastest

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA AUG. 11 . Old is gold. Sebastian Xavier proved this axiom by not only picking the first gold medal for Southern Railway but also stopped a clutch of youngsters in emerging the fastest swimmer of the 44th all-India inter-Railway aquatics championship at the Subhas Sarobar Complex here on Monday.

Xavier, whose contemporaries are either tending the garden at home or pushing files in their respective offices, quelled the challenge of Dipesh Bairagi of Eastern in a start to finish 50m freestyle race to clock 24.93s.

Bairagi came in second in 25.31 while his teammate Anupam Saha took the bronze in 26.20.

The host Eastern fished out all the other gold medals from the pool.

Western, however, ruled the diving well winning both the 1-metre springboard and highboard events.

The water polo final would be contested between defending champion Eastern and last year's finalist South Eastern.

After a false start triggered by I.C. Raju of Southern, Xavier nosed ahead of Bairagi at the 25-metre stage.

The Eastern swimmer was expected to close the gap in the next 25 metres but Xavier managed to stay ahead to deny Eastern the most sought after gold medal of the meet.

Eastern's Akbar Ali Mir picked up 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly gold medals to his yesterday's 200m backstroke. He kept himself well in line for the individual championship here as well.

The results:

50m freestyle: 1. Sebastian Xavier (SR) 24.93s, 2. Dipesh Bairagi (ER) 25.31, 3. Anupam Saha (ER) 26.20.

200m freestyle: 1. Akbar Ali Mir (ER) 2:01.14s, 2. Pankaj Das (SER) 2:05.29, 3. R. Regi Kumar (SR) 2:08.78.

1,500m freestyle: Subrata Nandy (ER) 18:11.62s, 2. Sudip Basak (ER) 18:42.54, 3. A. Rajamani (WR) 18:46.76.

100m backstroke: 1. Dipesh Bairagi (ER) 01:03.41s, 2. Pankaj Das (SER) 01:05.98, 3. M.K. Jayaprasad (SR) 01:07.14. 100m butterfly: 1. Akbar Ali Mir (ER) 00:59.45s, 2. Sudip Chatterjee 01:01.80, 3. R. Regi Kumar (SR) 01:02.16.

400m individual medley: 1. Habib Ali Mir (ER) 5:03.31s, 2. Kaushik Chakraborty (ER) 5:14.53, 3. Khokan Haldar (SER) 5:15.29.

Diving (1-m springboard): 1. Harish V. Annaldas (WR) 229.30 points, 2. Umesh Prasad (NER) 204.40, 3. Sanjay Basak (SER) 194.40.

Highboard: 1. Bhausaheb P. Dighe (WR) 399.20 points, 2. Vinod Kumar Singh (NER) 391.80, 3. Ujjal Das (SER) 352.75. Water polo (semifinals): Eastern Railway bt Western 5-4; South Eastern bt Central 9-4.

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