Senior National Aquatic Championship | Srihari Nataraj and Kushagra Rawat set national records
A file image of Srihari Nataraj.
|(Twitter)
National records continued to fall on day two of the 74th Senior National Aquatic Championship in Bengaluru, with Srihari Nataraj and Delhi's Kushagra Rawat rewriting the record books. Earlier on day one, Rawat had bettered the national record in the 400m freestyle category as well.
Indian swimmers Srihari Nataraj and Delhi's Kushagra Rawat created national records at the 74th Senior National Aquatic Championship on Wednesday. Chahat Arora was the third swimmer to break a national record on day two of the meet. In the men's 100m freestyle, Nataraj clocked 49.94 seconds in the final to better his own mark of 50.1. Earlier Virdhawal Khade had created a record in the category and clocked 50.53s in 2012.
"I wanted to start really well and do a quick 25m, I clocked 23seconds in the first 50m. And went 26 seconds in the second 50m. I thought I could go much faster than 49.94 but feels good to have gotten the record," Nataraj said after the event. The silver in the same category went to Anand of SSCB after he clocked 51.68 seconds, while Karnataka's Tanish George Mathew took home the bronze medal with a time of 51.85 seconds.
On the other hand, Delhi's Rawat bettered his own mark of 8:09.47 in the 800m freestyle for men.
He clocked 8:08.32 seconds to smash the national record set in 2019 and win the gold medal ahead of Aneesh S Gowda of Karnataka, who timed 8:23.89 seconds. The 21-year-old had also set a new national record in the 400m freestyle event on day one.
