Sport - National Games   

Aquatics: Sivaranjini, Richa, Rehan rewrite National marks

By A. Vinod

Rechan Poncha of Karnataka exults after his record win in the 400m freestyle at the National Games in Hyderabad on Tuesday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

HYDERABAD Dec. 17. It was a day of some close contests and blanket finishes. And keeping with the trend in which the competitions have progressed this far the fourth day's action at the swimming events also saw a further three National records being bettered at the Swarnandhra Pradesh Sports Complex pool, Gachibowli on Tuesday.

However, it is intriguing why the Swimming Federation of India officials insisted that they would not recognise the new National marks being set here as these were being established outside the National senior championships. The SFI might have its own reasons but the fact is that the key officials of the National body itself are running this meet technically and otherwise.

However, this hardly seemed to bother the swimmers or the crowd as well. For the huge throng, it was another afternoon that brought them undiluted joy what with Richa Mishra coming up with yet another sterling display in her fight against V. Sivaranjini (Karnataka) for the 200m individual medley gold.

The tide seemed to be in favour of the Bangalore girl until the end of the second lap, but suddenly changed in favour of Richa who surged ahead midway through the third leg (breaststroke) and then raced to her fourth individual gold in 2:30.67, well under Sangita Rani Puri's 1995 National record of 2:32.03.

But Sivaranjini was soon to get her revenge as she took the 200m breaststroke gold at the expense of Richa. The Andhra swimmer was unable to catch up with her rival once Sivaranjini broke away and came up with a devastating kick into the home stretch. Sivaranjini as she returned in 2:49.84 also improved upon her rival's National record of 2:49.88 set in 2000.

Besides her second individual gold, Sivaranjini also did feature prominently alongside K. Chitra, Shikha Tandon and Reshma Millet in Karnataka's easy meet record-breaking win in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay.

Among men, the day's hero was Karnataka's Rehan Poncha, winner of a third individual gold by picking up the 400m freestyle title, holding off a stiff challenge from AP's Amar Muralidharan towards the end. His time of 4:13.28 also bettered the existing National mark of 4:13.31 in the name of Kailash Nath since 1999. Incidentally, Kailash could achieve only the third spot today.

Amar, later, won the 200m butterfly gold beating Shreesh Reddy to the finish. Amar was at least two strokes behind the Karnataka rival at the final turn, but with a showing that had the crowd at their feet, turned the tables on Shreesh. The Andhra swimmer clocked 2:10.16, while Shreesh finished in 2:10.63.

In diving, Viraj J. Patil of Maharashtra took the 1m springboard title with a record total of 315.75 points, pushing his team-mate and National and meet record holder, Harish Ammaldas to the second place.

The results: Men: 400m freestyle: 1. Rehan Poncha (Kar), 4:13.28 - New National Record; OR - 4:13.31, Kailash Nath, 1999, 2. Amar Muralidharan (AP), 4:13.40, 3. Kailash Nath (AP), 4:20.52. 200m butterfly: 1. Amar Muralidharan (AP), 2:10.61, 2. Shreesh Reddy (Kar), 2:10.63, 3. Rehan Poncha (Kar), 2:12.19.

Women: 200m breaststroke: 1. V. Sivaranjini (Kar), 2:49.84 - NNR; OR - 2:49.88, Richa Mishra, 2000, 2. Richa Mishra (AP), 2:52.62, 3. Ambika N.S. Iyengar (Kar), 2:58.05. 200m individual medley: 1. Richa Mishra (AP), 2:28.56 - NNR; OR - 2:32.03, Sangita Rani Puri, 1995, 2. V. Sivaranjini (Kar), 2:30.67, 3. Shikha Tandon (Kar), 2:31.38. 4 x 200m freestyle relay: 1. Karnataka (Shikha Tandon, V. Sivaranjini, K. Chitra, Reshma Millet), 9:16.02 - New Meet Record; OR - 9:48.55, Karnataka, 1997, 2. Andhra Pradesh, 9:36.54, 3. Kerala, 9.42.91.

Diving: Men (1m spring board): 1. Viraj J. Patil (Mah), 315.75 points - NMR; OR - 277.50, Umesh Prasad, 1999, 2. Harish Ammaldas (Mah), 254.05, 3. Kunja Kishore Singh (SSCB), 239.80.

Waterpolo (preliminary league): Men: Group A: Maharashtra bt Manipur 5-3. Group B: Bengal bt Manipur 16-1. Women: Group A: Karnataka w/o Manipur. Group B: Bengal bt Punjab 13-0.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

Billiards & Snooker

• Sethi likely to skip Nationals
  
  Chess
  
• Aarthie becomes WGM
• Poobesh moves to joint second spot
• Harika breaks Humpy's record
  
  Cricket
  
• Jeff Crowe aiming for clean sweep
• A moment to cherish for England
• My 15 ... Bishan Bedi
  
  National Games
  
• Athletics: Arun D'Souza in record books
• Aquatics: Sivaranjini, Richa, Rehan rewrite National marks
• Tennis: AP women clinch crown
• Archery: Dream outing for Dola
• Boxing: Two pugilists hospitalised
• Hockey: Jharkhand thrashes AP
• Football: Orissa, AP in last four
• Weightlifting: Harita, Sateesh bag golds
  
  

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu