Karnataka’s A.K. Lineysha stunned everyone, including herself, by winning the women’s 200m breaststroke crown with a new meet record in the National aquatic championships at the Dr. Zakir Hussain Aquatic Complex here on Thursday.
Lineysha, who will turn 15 in November, clocked 2:39.38 to improve seven seconds over her previous best performance. She went past Saloni Dalal’s four-year-old meet record of 2:41.88.
“I never made any record at any level. Now I broke the record at the National championship! I had lost pace after missing training for about a week, earlier this year. I don’t know how I did it,” said an overwhelmed Lineysha.
Her coach A.C. Jayaraj’s rigorous methods, focusing on Lineysha’s turns and start, apparently helped the youngster.
Bhavya Sachdeva claimed her second gold, while Siva S. got his third. Bhavya took the 1500m freestyle title, while Siva won the 400m medley.
The championship lost some sheen as World junior championships finalist Apeksha Fernandes pulled out in the last minute due to a back issue.
London Singh defeated Siddharth Pardeshi to bag the men’s 3m springboard gold.
The results: Men: 200m breaststroke: 1. Likith S.P. (SSCB) 2:17.68, 2. Danush Suresh (TN) 2:17.91, 3. Lohith M. (RSPB) 2:21.53; 50m butterfly: 1. Harsh Saroha (Har) 25.00, 2. Benediction Rohit B. (TN) 25.09, 3. Bikram Changmai (Asm) 25.12; 400m medley: 1. Siva S. (Kar) 4:31.71, 2. Yug Chelani (Raj) 4:39.44, 3. Emil Robin Singh (RSPB) 4:41.48; 4x100m medley: 1. SSCB 3:47.22 (NMR, previous Karnataka, 3:48.83, 2019), 2. RSPB 3:51.70, 3. Tamil Nadu 3:54.27.
Women: 50m freestyle: 1. Avantika Chavan (RSPB) 26.65, 2. Shivangi Sarma (Asm) 26.86, 3. Maana Patel (Guj) 26.93; 1500m freestyle: 1. Bhavya Sachdeva (Del) 17:40.82, 2. Vritti Agarwal (Tel) 17:56.70, 3. Richa Mishra (AIP) 18:24.87; 200m breaststroke: 1. A.K. Lineysha (Kar) 2:39.38 (NMR, previous Saloni Dalal, 2:41.88, 2018), 2. Chahat Arora (Pun) 2:42.71, 3. S. Lakshya (Kar) 2:43.87; 50m butterfly: 1. Divya Satija (Har) 28.57, 2. Nandini Pethkar (Mah) 28.93, 3. Tanishi Gupta (Kar) 29.03; 4x100m medley: 1. Karnataka 4:33.48, 2. Bengal 4:35.14, 3. Maharashtra 4:35.69.
Diving: Men: 3m springboard: 1. London Singh (SSCB) 279.65, 2. Siddharth Pardeshi (SSCB) 249.85, 3. Utkarsh Joshi (MP) 230.15.
