A.V. Jayaveena of Tamil Nadu created history in the morning session of the 72nd Glenmark National Aquatic Championships 2018 at Tiruvanantapuram. She became the first Indian female swimmer to break the 34 second barrier in the 50 m Breast stroke. She clocked 33.81 Seconds to eclipse a 6-year-old record of Priyanka Priyadarshini. The finals however saw a major upset with Saloni Dalal of Karnataka claiming gold with a fantastic finish clocking a time of 00:34.56. Jayaveena had to settle for silver with a time of 00:34.59 while Annie Jain from Madhya Pradesh won bronze with a time of 00:35.11
Olympian and local favorite Sajan Prakash swam a perfectly paced race to beat a star-studded field to win gold in the 200 m Freestyle with a new national record time of 01:50.35. Srihari Nataraj from Karnataka and the best overall swimmer in the Glenmark Junior Nationals in Pune finished second with a time of 01:51.49 while Aaryan Makhija representing SFI won bronze with a time of 01:52.47
The second race of the evening saw top seed and Olympian Shivani Katariya representing Haryana swim a flawless race to win gold in the 200m Freestyle with a new national record clocking 02:05.86. She beat her own record set in 2017. Khushi Dinesh from Karnataka edged past Sai Glenmark TIDM program swimmer Prachi Tokas of Delhi to win silver with a time of 02:10.59 while Prachi clocked 02:10.79 to win bronze.
Sajan returned to the pool to win his second gold of the day winning the 200 m Individual Medley with a time of 02:05.83 edging past a nine-year-old National record by 0.06 seconds set by Rehan Poncha in 2009. Sanu Debnath of Railways won silver with a time of 02:09.06 while Supriya Mondal also from railways won bronze with a time of 02:09.79
Richa Mishra representing Police showcased her experience and all round swimming excellence to win the 200 Individual Medley for Women clocking a time of 02:24.23. Rapidly improving Kenisha Gupta representing SFI won silver with a time of 02:27.60 while Sayani Ghosh won bronze for Bengal with a time 02:28.24
Sandeep Sejwal from Delhi who was a part of the Asian Games contingent this year broke his own record in the 50 m Breast stroke clocking a time of 27.89 in the heats. The finals in the evening saw Likhith S P challenge Sandeep stroke for stroke but Sandeep proved his class by winning gold with a time of 00:28.39. Likhith S P representing Karnataka won silver with a time of 00:28.74 while Puneet Rana of Police won bronze with a time of 00:29.14
Team RSPB represented by Aaron Dsouza, Sarma SP Nair, Sanu Debnath and Saurabh Sangvekar shrugged off a poor heat timing to lead from start to finish to win gold in the 4 X 100 m Freestyle relay with a time of 03:30.37. Team SSCB finished second with a time of 03:32.70, while Team SFI had a fantastic back half to win bronze with a time of 03:34.11.
Team SFI represented by Trisha Karkhanis, Sadhvi Dhuri, Yuga Birnale and Kenisha Gupta caused an upset to win the 4 X 100m Freestyle relay with a time of 04:04.16. Experienced Aditi Dhumatkar ensured RSPB win silver with a time of 04:07.61 by swimming a wonderful anchor leg while team Karnataka won bronze with a time of 04:07.96
Full results can be downloaded on http://swimmingfederation.in.
