HYDERABAD, July 5: Teenager Aryan Nehra ended the swimming nationals as he began – with a new national record and a gold medal around his neck, here on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old from Gujarat, who was adjudged the best male swimmer, shattered yet another record, this time in the men’s 400m medley on the final day of the National Aquatic Championships here.
Aryan clocked 4:25.62 as he comfortably shaved off close to five seconds from Rehan Poncha’s 4:30.13 that was set way back in 2009. It was another dominating display by the teenager as Shoan Ganguly, who won the silver finished with a time of 4:33.90 while Rajasthan’s Yug Chelani touched the pad 4:38.80.
He returns from the meet with four gold medals and as many national record. He created new marks in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle events apart from the 400m medley. The best female swimmer award went to Lineysha A K, who also erased a national record in the women’s 100m breaststroke.
The Karnataka swimmer swam 1:12.67 to finish ahead of state-mate Manavi Varma (1:13.57) and Railways’ Harshitha Jayaram (1:14.66). Nina Venkatesh broke the women’s 100m butterfly national record by clocking 1:02.51. She finished ahead of the Maharashtrian duo of Anannya Nayak (1:03.27) and Apeksha Fernandes (1:03.62).
Karnataka won the men’s and women’s team championship as well as the overall championship.Team Karnataka bagged a haul of 38 medals, including 16 golds, 10 silvers and 12 bronze. Maharashtra finished second followed by Gujarat. The four-day national meet saw as many as 18 new records and eight best Indian times, mostly created by swimmers in the 14-20 age group. (PTI)
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