78th Senior National Aquatic Championships – India
- June 22-26, 2025
- Aquatic Complex, Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
- LCM (50m)
- Results
India concluded its Senior National Championships this week with an astonishing seven new national records in the book.
One of the meet’s biggest stars was 15-year-old Dhinidhi Desinghu. The Karnataka state swimmer downed national records in both the 100 and 200 freestyle, clocking 56.78 and 2:02.97, respectively. She becomes the first Indian woman to go 56 in the 100, beating Shivangi Sarma’s previous national mark of 57.73. The 200 record belonged to Desinghu herself at 2:04.24. Earlier this year, she also cracked the 400 NR in 4:24.60.
Two of Desinghu’s fellow Karnataka statesmen, Shoan Ganguly and Rujula S also nabbed new national records. In the men’s IM events, it was all Ganguly. First, he took the 200 in 2:04.34, besting the 2:05.43 Indian record that Siva Sridhar established in 2022. A couple days later, he followed it up in the 400 with a 4:24.64 effort, beating the former national record holder, Ayran Nehra head-to-head. Nehra’s record stood at 4:25.62 before this week.
Meanwhile, Rujula S. got her hand to the wall first in the 50 freestyle, going 26.36. This shaved a tenth off of Rujuta Khade’s 26.47 national record.
The Swimming Federation of India crowned Ganguly and Desinghu the male and female swimmers of the meet, and their home state of Karnataka topped the points and the medal table. They weren’t the only ones to rewrite the national record board, though.
Hailing from Tamilnadu, B. Benedicton Rohit captured a new record in the 100 fly, becoming the first Indian under 53 (52.57). In the 200 backstroke, meanwhile, Rishabh Anupam Das neared the 2:00 barrier. The Maharashtra statesman clocked a 2:00.65 to take down the previous record of 2:01.70. Utkarsh Santosh Patil also got under the old record, grabbing second in 2:00.98.
