The Hindu : Sport : Senthil, Nisha and Rehan hog the limelight

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 06, 2004

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

Senthil, Nisha and Rehan hog the limelight

By Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI, OCT. 4. T.K. Senthil Kumar remains the undisputed king of backstroke in the country. Since 1996, the 28-year-old from the Central Reserve Police Force has won at least one gold in every edition of the National aquatic championship. On Tuesday, at the Talkatora pool here, Senthil set himself up for a `double' by improving his own 100m backstroke record set in 1997.

The opening day of the National meet also witnessed record-breaking timings from Karnataka's Nisha Millet and Rehan Poncha in the 400m freestyle. Nisha improved her own mark set last year while Poncha erased Kailash Nath's record of 1999. In fact, today's silver-medallist Amar Muralidharan also finished inside the previous record.

Senthil, who has been practising here for a few years, made the most of the familiar conditions and the challenge from teammate Arjun Muralidharan to return his best time in seven years. He won the two-lapper in 1:01.14 to clip 0:00.02 seconds off his previous record. "Lack of competition is the main reason why I could not improve upon my time since 1997. Today, the record happened because of Arjun. He has been swimming pretty well this season and he pushed me to a faster time," said the mild-mannered Senthil.

Unlike Senthil, Nisha was not too pleased with her best effort in the National meet. She won in 4:31.87 and improved upon her effort of 4:33.55 recorded in the last edition of the National championship in Kolkata. Nisha, who has been training in Perth for a sometime now and has been looking to come under 4:29, pointed to the lack of challenge in today's race for her less-than-satisfying time on this day. Nisha is due to leave for Indianapolis early on Wednesday.

Diwase third

In the men's 400m freestyle final, the face-off between Poncha and Amar Muralidharan pushed defending champion Mandar Diwase to the third spot. Poncha, who missed the last edition of the meet, never relinquished the lead though Amar chased him closely till the finish. Diwase, however, could not even repeat his last year's gold winning time of 4:13.33.

Similarly, Tamil Nadu's Saba Sait and Karnataka's D. Mrudula forced last year's gold medallist Ambica Iyengar to settle for the bronze in the 100m breastroke final.

National record-holder Richa Mishra collected the first of her three expected gold medals in butterfly by winning the one-lapper ahead of Ambica and V. Sivaranjini. The corresponding event in the men's section was fought more closely before K. Rajiv retained the gold.

In women's high board diving, Rashmi Das upstaged Mamoni Mondal for the gold.

The results:

Men: 400m freestyle: 1. Rehan Poncha (Kar) 4:10.95 (NMR, old 4:13.31, Kailash Nath, 1999); 2. Amar Muralidharan (Pol) 4:12.22; 3. Mandar Diwase (Pol) 4:13.57; 100m backstroke: 1. T. K. Senthil Kumar (Pol) 1:01.14 (NMR, old 1:01.16, T. K. Senthil Kumar, 1997); 2. Arjun Muralidharan (Pol) 1:01.55; 3. N. A. Sandeep (Kar) 1:03.39; 50m butterfly: 1. K. Rajiv (Rlys) 0:26.29; 2. Rahul Batra (Kar) 0:26.58; 3. Parikshit Shetty (Mah) 0:26.79.

Women: 400m freestyle: 1. Nisha Millet (Kar) 4:31.87 (NMR, old 4:33.55, Nisha Millet 2003); 2. Charu Mishra (Pol) 4:50.08; 3. Aarti Ghorpade (Mah) 4:51.08; 100m breaststroke: 1. Saba Sait (TN) 1:19.68; 2. D. Mrudula (Kar) 1:19.86; 3. Ambica Iyengar (Kar) 1:20.35; 50m butterfly: 1. Richa Mishra (Pol) 0:30.63; 2. Ambica Iyengar (Kar) 0:31.00; 3. V. Sivaranjini (Kar) 0:31.19.

Diving: Women: High Board: 1. Rashmi Das (Pol) 363.40 points; 2. Mamoni Mondal (Rlys) 349.55; 3. Yogita S. Walunj (Mah) 335.05.

Water polo: Men: Bengal bt Maharashtra 4-3; Kerala bt Punjab 11-4; Delhi bt Karnataka 11-3; Police bt Manipur 13-0. Women: Maharashtra bt Manipur 8-1; Karnataka bt Delhi 7-2.

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