Khade sets the pool ablaze by creating unique record

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Oct 8(UNI): Veer Dhaval Khade set the pool on fire in the 50 m freestly by emerging as the fastest swimmer of India and creating new record of 00:22:71 sec in the 50m freestyle.

He erazed a 11-year-old record set by Sebastian Xavier (00:22:89).

Though Aaron D'Souza of Karnataka, who gave Veer Dhaval a good fight, bagged the silver(00:23:65) and Arjun P of Raliways claimed the bronze (00:24:71).

The victory has been the highlight of the championship so far.

Rehan Poncha started rewriting the record book today by upsetting his own record set last year in the 200 m individual medley (02:05:89).

He maintianed a clear lead over Sandeep Sejwal of Delhi, (02:12:34) who claimed silver.

But Sandeep met with a stiff challenge from the broze medalist Ashwin Menon of Karnataka (02:13:19).

In the women's 200 m, Richa Mishra of police continued her domination with a new record in 200 m individual medley (02:25:00) by bettering her own record set three years ago.

Karnataka's Pooja Alva claimed silver (02:28:96) and her teammate Tejaswini bagged the bronze(02:33:67) M B Malakrishnan of Tamil Nadu, etched his name on the record book, as he set a new mark in the 50 m men's backstroke(00:27:56) and in the process did upset his own record set last year.

Rohit Havaldar of Karnataka claimed silver (00:28:12 ) and Arjun Muralidhar of Police claimed bronze.

Fariha Zaman of Assam claimed gold in women's backstroke by returing a time of 00:31:67 while Jyotsna Pansare of Maharashtra bagged silver(00:31:90) and C Ayshwarya of Tamil Nadu, returing a time of 00:32:59 garnered the bronze .

The womens 50 m freestyle witnessed Karnataka dominance as they bagged the gold and silver medals.

Subha C bagged the gold(00:27:67), silver went to Sneha (00:27:75) and bronze medal was bagged by Talasha Prabhu of Goa ( 00:27:86) In the 4x100 m men's medley relay, Karnataka team of Rehan Poncha, Rohit Havaldar, Gagan AP and Aaron D Souza, who bagged the gold (04:00:55) were no match for the police team, who secured silver (04:02:24).

Railways bagged the broze(04:07:11) In the 4x100 m women's medley relay, Karnataka repeated the performance of thier male counterparts.

Karnataka's Krishna Mahajan, Arhata, Tejaswini and Shuba, who bagged the gold (04:39:62) outclassed the silver winning Maharashtra(04:48:66).

Tamil Nadu claimed the bronze(04:51:58) .

In 3 m men's Diving, Hariprasad of Railways secured the gold (303.65 points) followed by his teammate Ravi Kumar Singh, with the silver (281.95 points) and Hemjith Meithei of Jarkhand bagged the bronze medal(275.95 points).

At the end of the day, Karnataka were on top with 237 points and Maharashtra with 125 points at second place and Police with 89 points in third place.