National Aquatics: Shaon Ganguly sets meet record in 400m IM; Karnataka finishes on top of medal tally

Bhubaneswar, June 26 Shaon Ganguly improved on the best Indian time from 2024 in the 400m Individual Medley as he clocked 4 minutes 24.64 seconds to win the gold ahead of Advait Page and Aryan Nehra, ending the 78th Senior National Aquatics Championships in a blaze of glory at the Kalinga Stadium here on Thursday.

Shoan Ganguly, representing Karnataka, set the new Meet Record and improved on the National Record of 4:25.62 held by Aryan Nehra, which he set in Hyderabad in 2023. Page came second at 4:26.90 while Gujarat's Nehra finished third with a timing of 4:30.35.

The exciting event of the evening session on the final day at the Senior Nationals was the 100m backstroke battle between Rishabh Das and Utkarsh Patil, in which Rishabh finished ahead of Utkarsh by 16 microseconds.

Maharashtra's Rishabh surged ahead to touch in at 56.13 seconds while Utkarsh came second in 56.29. Karnataka's Akash Mani came third in 56.35 seconds in the event in which the National Record of 55.10 seconds is held by Olympian Srihari Nataraj of Karnataka.

In the Men's 100m freestyle, Heer Gitesh Shah of Maharashtra surprised everyone with a blazing finish, winning the gold medal in 51.29. Karnataka's Tanish George Mathew was second in 51.30, while Rishabh Das came in third with a timing of 51.43 seconds.

On Wednesday, Rishabh had shattered Srihari Nataraj's national meet record and best Indian time, in men's 200m backstroke, clocking 2:00.65 in the process and achieving the World Championships B qualification time. Nataraj had set the previous record of 2:02.29 at Bhopal way back in 2019.

⁠Rohit Benediction also made the world championship qualifying time with a 24.11 in 50 butterfly, claiming the gold and another best Indian time in the process.

Overall, Karnataka finished on top of the medals tally with 41 medals -- 16 gold, 11 silver, and 14 bronze. They dominated the women's section with 10 gold, four silver, and five bronze medals.

Tamil Nadu finished second in the standings with 16 medals, including eight gold and five silver medals, while Maharashtra finished third with 17 medals, five of which were gold.

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