Karnataka retains team title

By Our Sports Reporter

MADGAON, JULY 10. Karnataka stamped it's class at the Fatorda swimming pool when it retained the team title with 551 points as the curtains were rung down on the 28th junior National aquatic championship here on Tuesday.

The concluding day heroics was loaded in Karnataka's favour with it's swimmers - Rahul Batra, Shikha Tandon and Rehan Poncha - setting three new National records.

The runner-up tag went to Maharashtra. It failed to emulate it's sub-junior championship performance when it won the title last week at the same venue. However, the Maharashtra girls held their own in the Group II section topping it at 134 points while Karnataka lagged behind at 128. Maharashtra had an overall tally of 435 and was resigned to the bridesmaid's role.

In the Group II 200m backstroke Rehan, the class ten student of St. Joseph's Boys High School in Bangalore, put up a class act. He clocked 2:17.30s to beat the earlier record of Delhi's Bhanu Sachdeva - 2:18.10s - set in 1992. It was his fourth individual gold in the meet and the glitter was augmented with four simultaneous National records.

The Karnataka swimmers extended their good run when Shikha Tandon and Reshma Millet faced off in the girls Group I 100m freestyle final. The clash, however, failed to evoke the intensity of their Monday tilt for the 50m freestyle gold.

Reshma led initially before slipping away as Shikha blazed ahead at 1:00.61s while Reshma clocked 1:01.81s. Shikha was gasping for breath and did not realise that she had scalped Nisha Millet's earlier record of 1:00.86s set in 1999. And when the finishing judge told her about the record all she could manage was a weak smile and a tired nod while Reshma whispered `congrats' and shook her hand. It was a clean sweep for Shikha as she won four golds out of four events.

Rehan Poncha and Shikha Tandon might have monopolised their events but for State-mate Rahul Batra the vagaries of form had come home to roost until today. He did bag two golds earlier but they were in relay. In individual events all he managed was a fourth place finish in the 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle finals. ``The last few days were bad, perhaps God wasn't with me but today it felt great,'' he said.

He grabbed two golds on the concluding day. He won the 50m butterfly at 26.82s. The Jain College student from Bangalore topped it with a record burst in the 100m freestyle. Rahul clocked 55.16s while erasing Assam's Elvis Hazarika's record of 55.38s set in 1997.

Swimming may have gone Karnataka's way but water polo figured in the upset charts. In the boys final Bengal unseated defending champion Kerala at 5-4 after trailing 2-3 until the final minutes. Maharashtra had to remain content with bronze. In the distaff side, Maharashtra topped with Bengal and Kerala easing into the second and third spots.

The special awardees: Boys: Group I: Rahul Batra (Kar - 819 pts); Group II: Rehan Poncha (Kar - 814). Girls: Group I: Shikha Tandon (Kar - 832); Group II: Ambica N.S. Iyengar (745).

The results: Swimming: Boys: Group I: 50m butterfly: 1. Rahul Batra (Kar - T: 26.82s), 2. Sudeep Chatterjee (Ben - 27.12), 3. B.H. Ashwin Kumar (Kar - 27.45); 100m freestyle: 1. Rahul Batra (Kar - 55.16 NR, old: 55.38, Elvis Ali Hazarika, Assam, 1997), 2. B.H. Ashwin Kumar (Kar - 56.55), 3. Varun Digvikar (Mah - 58.60); 200m backstroke: 1. Varun Sethi (Del - 2:22.84), 2. Jay Shah (Mah - 2:27.46), 3. Rohan Sylvester (TN - 2:28.27).

Group II: 50m butterfly: 1. Parikshit Shetty (Mah - 28.09), 2. Sachin Bengre (Kar - 28.92), 3. Ashish Kulkarni (Kar - 28.85); 100m freestyle: 1. Parikshit Shetty (Mah - 57.31), 2. Ashish Kulkarni (Kar - 59.67), 3. Sachin Bengre (Kar - 1:00.06); 200m backstroke: 1. Rehan Poncha (Kar - 2:17.30 NR, old: 2:18.10, Bhanu Sachdeva, Delhi, 1992), 2. N.S. Abhiram (Kar - 2:23.39), 3. Rohit Barve (Mah - 2:29.28).

Girls: Group I: 50m butterfly: 1. Richa Mishra (Del - 31.27), 2. Divya R. Maiya (Kar - 32.04), 3. Farin Yasin (Mah - 33.36); 100m freestyle: 1. Shikha Tandon (Kar - 1:00.61 NR, old: 1:00.86, Nisha Millet, Karnataka, 1999), 2. Reshma Millet (Kar - 1:01.81), 3. Rishu Mehra (Del - 1:06.40); 200m backstroke: 1. Avani Sawant (Mah - 2:36.33), 2. Amritha Shetty (Kar - 2:40.66), 3. Nisha Mohite (Kar - 2:46.84).

Group II: 50m butterfly: 1. Mansi Shelke (Mah - 31.47), 2. Shruti Reddy (Mah - 31.83), 3. B. Praveena (Ker - 34.31); 100m freestyle: 1. Lisa Mahanta (Asm - 1:06.04), 2. P. Praditha (Kar - 1:06.69), 3. Vishaka Naik (Mah - 1:08.31); 200m backstroke: 1. Sony Cyriac (Ker - 2:42.37), 2. Annie Jose (Goa - 2:44.88), 3. Malvika Nityananda (Guj - 2:48.10).

Water-polo: Boys: final: Bengal 5 (Prosenjit Banerjee 2, Rampoasad Naskar 2, Lakshman Halder 1) bt Kerala 4 (V. Anil Kumar 2, V.D. Srevishakh 2).

Girls: League (for second and third place): Bengal 3 (Swetty Santra 1, Priti Gupta 1, Purnima Pal 1) bt Kerala 1 (Praveena 1).

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