Swimmers shatter records on day three

Ranchi: Richa Mishra was again the star of the day today as five records were shattered with swimmers continuing to make a big splash in the 34th National Games here on Tuesday.

The Delhi girl picked up two gold medals with record timings today to make it six yellow metals in total by the end of day three, while she finished behind Goa`s Talasha Prabhu in the sprint event to settle for a silver at the Veer Budhu Bhagat Aquatic Stadium in Mega Sports Complex here. Indian swimming sensation Virdhawal Khade rewrote his earlier record in the heats as went on to improve it in the final to emerge the fastest swimmer of the meet. Promising Karnataka youngster Gagan A P and compatriot Rohit Havaldar smashed the remaining two records of the day. It was again a memorable day for Maharashtra and Karnataka who went on to clinch two gold medals each on day three of the competition.Battling a stomach upset, 27-year-old Delhi girl Richa clocked 05.09:47s to improve nine-year-old record of 05.09:91 in the 400m individual medley, while Karnataka bagged the silver and bronze through Pooja Alva (05.25:03) and Sushaka Pratap (05.30:21), respectively. Richa smashed her four year old record (02.29:34) in the 200m backstroke when she swam with a timing of 02.26:82. In the first 50m Richa trailed Ananya Panigrahi of Maharashtra but the ace swimmer slowly went ahead and stretched the lead before eclipsing her previous best. Ananya had to be content with silver with a timing of 02.29:22, while her statemate Aarti Ghorpade took the bronze clocking 02.32:04. Meanwhile, Richa`s hopes of making a hat-trick today was dashed in the 50m freestyle as Talasha lived up to her reputation in the sprint to claim the gold, clocking 27:95. Richa clocked 28:22 for the silver, while A V Jayaveena of Tamil Nadu clinched the bronze with 28:66. Asian Games bronze medalist Khade had no problem winning the 50m freestyle as the Kolhapur boy clocked 23:08 en route to his third gold. In the morning session heats, the 19-year-old had bettered his four year old record (23:92) putting up a timing of 23:81. Arjun J P of Karnataka bagged the silver stopping the clock at 24:65, while Anshul Kothari (24:96) took home the bronze. Showing a lot of promise, 19-year-old Karnataka youngster Gagan smashed Rehan Poncha`s four year old record (04.44:32) with a superb timing of 04.40:08 in the 400m individual medley to start the proceedings in swimming. Delhi bagged the silver through Merwyn Chen who clocked 04.46:56, while national record holder Sandeep Sejwal representing Madhya Pradesh won the bronze with a timing of 04.51:89. In diving, Maharashtra clinched the gold through Hrutika Shriram, who logged 200.95 in the high board en route to the gold, while her statemate Jagruti Satarakar logged 159.50. Bengal`s Tanuka Dhara bagged the bronze with 153.45. PTI