Chahat Arora bettered the National record twice on her way to winning the women’s 100m gold medal on the concluding day of the National aquatic championships at the Dr. Zakir Hussain Aquatic Complex here on Saturday.
The 25-year-old from Punjab first clocked 1:14.38 in the heats to improve upon her previous record of 1:14.42, set in the Thailand Open last year. Returning to the pool in the evening for the final, a confident Chahat timed 1:13.61 to claim the title in style.
Sejwal’s advice
“I trained with (Asian Games medallist breastroker) Sandeep Sejwal for two months and it helped me improve my timing. He asked me to go for records in the heats to build the momentum,” said Chahat, who set a new 50m breaststroke mark on day one.
S. Siva and Maana Patel got their third individual gold medals to be adjudged the Best Swimmer in men’s and women’s sections.
The results: Men: 200m freestyle: 1. Aneesh Gowda (Kar) 1:52.49, 2. Vishal Grewal (Del) 1:53.04, 3. Sambhavv R. (Kar) 1:54.55; 200m butterfly: 1. Aryan Panchal (Guj) 2:02.97, 2. Sanu Debnath (RSPB) 2:04.97, 3. Bikram Changmai (Asm) and Harsh Saroha (Har) 2:05.24; 100m breaststroke: 1. Likith S.P. (SSCB) 1:02.54, 2. Danush Suresh (TN) 1:03.71, 3. Anoop Augustine (RSPB) 1:04.74; 100m backstroke: 1. S. Siva (Kar) 57.59, 2. Vinayak V. (SSCB) 57.81, 3. Utkarsh Patil (Kar) 58.38; Team championship: Karnataka (129 points); Best swimmer: S. Siva S. (3 golds, 1 silver, 1 NMR).
Women: 100m freestyle: 1. Shivangi Sarma (Asm) 57.73, 2. Avantika Chavan (RSPB) 59.29, 3. Mahi Swetraj (Bih) 59.78; 800m freestyle: 1. Bhavya Sachdeva (Del) 9:17.25, 2. Vritti Agarwal (Tel) 9:24.43, 3. Richa Mishra (AIP) 9:30.78; 200m butterfly: 1. Astha Choudhury (Asm) 2:22.59, 2. Kanya Nayyar (MP) 2:24.37, 3. Vritti Agarwal (Tel) 2:24.48; 100m breaststroke: 1. Chahat Arora (Pun) 1:13.61 (New, previous Chahat, 1:14.38, 2022), 2. Jyoti Patil (Mah) 1:16.33, 3. 3. Manavi Varma (Kar) 1:16.99; 100m backstroke: 1. Maana Patel (Guj) 1:04.33, 2. Soubrity Mondal (Ben) 1:07.01, 3. Palak Joshi (Mah) 1:07.96; Team championship: Karnataka (121); Best swimmer: Maana Patel (3 golds, 1 bronze, 1 NMR).
Diving: Men: 1m springboard: 1. Gaurav Raghuvanshi (RSPB) 251.80, 2. Surajit Rajbanshi (SSCB) 242.45, 3. Anuj Shah (Mah) 239.80; Team championship: Men: SSCB (32); Women: RSPB (24).
Water polo: Men: 1. RSPB, 2. SSCB, 3. AIP; Women: 1. AIP, 2. Kerala, 3. Bengal.
