Virdhawal Khade breaks own record in 50m butterfly at the National Swimming Championship

Khade seems to be in a league of his own in recent months, at least as far as the Indian contingent is concerned. The swimmer from Kolhapur, who narrowly missed out on the bronze medal in the recently concluded Asian Games, created a national record in the men's 50m butterfly, for the second time.

Khade recorded a time of 24.26 seconds in the Glenmark 72nd National swimming championship at the B.R. Ambedkar Aquatic complex on Saturday. In doing so, he broke his own meet record of 24.36 seconds which he set nine years ago. The 27-year-old also met the B-standards qualifying norms for the world meet. Virdhawal’s long-time rivals Supriya Mondal and Sarma S.P. Nair finished second and third respectively in the 50m butterfly event.

Meanwhile, Saloni, who represented Karnataka, showcased her amazing ability to shoot ahead in the final part of the race once again. She outswam SFI's Kareena Shankta, who was the leader for the most part of the race. In doing so, Saloni not only won gold but also established a national record, as she recorded a time 01:14.87 seconds.

Advait Page narrowly failed to break the existing record in 400m medley race. Adavit trailed initially during the race but emerged in the lead in the backstroke

Results:

Men: 100m freestyle: 1. Neel Roy (SFI) 51.45, 2. Srihari Nataraj (Kar) 51.34, 3. Anshul Kothari (Guj) 52.22.

400m medley: 1. Advait Page (MP) 4:30.92, 2. T. Emil R. Robin Singh (TN) 4:37.14, 3. Sanu Debnath (Rlys) 4:39.71.

100m breaststroke: 1. Sandeep Sejwal (Del) 1:02.60, 2. S.P. Likith (Kar) 1:03.09, 3. Puneet Rana 1:04.14.

50m butterfly: 1. Virdhawal Khade (SFI) 24.26; NR; OR - 24.36, Virdhawal Khade (Mah), 2009, 2. Supriya Mondal (Rlys) 24.86, 3. Sarma S.P. Nair (Rlys) 25.19.

4x200m freestyle relay: 1. Karnataka 7:48.05, 2. SFI 7:51.29, 3. Railways 7:52.75.

Women: 100m freestyle: 1. Kenisha Gupta (SFI) 58.75, 2. Shivani Kataria (Har) 58.77, 3. Aditi Dhumatkar 59.13.

800m freestyle: 1. Richa Mishra (Police) 9:14.22, 2. Bhavika Dugar (TN) 9:22.57, 3. Khushi Dinesh (Kar) 9:22.62.

100m breaststroke: 1. Saloni Dalal (Kar) 1:14.87; NR; OR - 1:15.19 - Chahat Arora (Pun), 2017, 2. Kareena Shankta (SFI) 1:15.24, 3. Annie Jain (MP) 1;17.70.

50m butterfly: 1. Divya Satija (Har) 28.72, 2. Kenisha Gupta (SFI) 28.94, 3. Liyana Fathima Umer (Ker) 29.00.