National swimming: Dhinidhi, Nina set national records; Karnataka emerge champions

Bengaluru, Oct 23 (IANS) Two new national records and one narrow miss were the highlights on the final day of the 37th Sub Junior and 47th Junior National Aquatic Championships 2021 here on Saturday.

Karnataka's Dhinidhi Desinghu in 100m freestyle for group III girls, and Nina Venkatesh, in 50m butterfly for group I girls, set new records while their statemate Sambhavv R narrowly missed the opportunity to improve on a 13-year-old mark in 100m freestyle by a fraction of a second as Karnataka emerged overall champion.

Dhinidhi came up with a brilliant dash in the 100m freestyle for group III girls to set a new national record on the final day. She touched the pads at 1:01.77 seconds to eclipse Vedika Amin of Maharashtra's record of 1:02.77 set in 2017, Pune. Tanishi Gupta also of Karnataka took home the silver with a time of 1:04.22 seconds and Aditi Hegde of Maharashtra won the bronze with a time of 1:05.63 seconds.

In another sensational race, Sambhavv R of Karnataka missed the national record by a mere 0.6 fraction of a second in the 100m freestyle for group I boys. Sambhavv clocked 51.39 seconds while the national record that stands in Virdhawal Khade's name since 2008 was 51.33 seconds. Veer Khatkar of Haryana finished second, almost a body length behind Sambhavv, with a time of 52.83 and Vedaant Madhavan of Maharashtra won bronze with a time of 53.19 seconds.

Another national record was erased in the 50m butterfly for group I girls with Karnataka's Nina Venkatesh bettering her own mark of 28.93 seconds clocked in the heats. She had bettered Suvana Bhaskar's record of 29.35 seconds set in 2018. In the final, she clocked 28.51 to clinch the gold and also set a new national record. Astha Choudhury of Assam settled for silver in 29.16 seconds and Nilabjaa Ghosh of Bengal took the bronze medal with a time of 29.43.

The overall championship at the 37th Sub Junior and 47th Junior National Aquatic Championships 2021 was clinched by hosts Karnataka with a total medal tally of 160 medals while Maharashtra was second with 69 medals.