The Hindu : Sport / Swimming : Rana signs off in style

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 11, 2004

Sport

Sport - Swimming

Rana signs off in style

By Rakesh Rao

Arjun Muralidharan, Shikha Tandon, Tanya Ganguly and Viraj Patil who were adjudged the best swimmers and divers respectively in the National aquatic championship in New Delhi. - Photo: Sandeep Saxena

NEW DELHI, OCT. 10. Puneet Rana brought the curtains down on the 58th National aquatic championship in great style. The 21-year-old shattered Deepak Kumar's National record in the 200m breaststroke by more than four seconds to fish out his third gold from the Talkatora Pool here on Sunday.

Rana's sweep of breaststroke medals, with National record timings in all three distances, saw him duplicate Deepak Kumar's feat of 2002. This time, Deepak had to settle for three silver medals. But what was more difficult for Deepak to accept that all his records were sunk in the space of five days. With it, he also lost the tag of being the best breaststroker in the country to Rana.

Rana put the finishing touches to his job on hand by leaving Deepak more than eight seconds behind in the four lapper. The 21-year-old computer engineer carried on unchallenged the last 100 metres and clocked 2:22.43 as against Deepak's 2:30.31. In fact, Deepak had to fight hard to stay ahead of teammate B. Vinay at the finish.

The results:

Men: 100m freestyle: 1. T. A. Sujith (Ser) 0:53.59; 2. Aniketh D'Souza (Kar) 0:54.18; 3. Amar Muralidharan (Pol) 0:54.26; 200m breaststroke: 1. Puneet Rana (Pun) 2:22.70 (NR, old 2:27.28 by Deepak Kumar in 2002); 2. Deepak Kumar (Pol) 2:30.43; 3. B. Vinay (Pol) 2:31.75; 200m butterfly: 1. Arjun Muralidharan (Pol) 2:05.87 (NMR, old 2:08.17 by Akbar Ali Mir in 2003); 2. Shireesh Reddy (Pol) 2:07.48; 3. Rehan Poncha (Kar) 2:07.62.

Women: 100m freestyle: 1. Shikha Tandon (Kar) 0:59.37; 2. Richa Mishra (Pol) 1:01.54; 3.Rishu Mehra (Pol) 1:02.92; 200m butterfly: 1. Richa Mishra (Pol) 2:24.64; 2. Pooja R. Alva (Kar) 2:33.04; 3. Pooja Ghorpade (Mah) 2:35.94; 4x100m medley relay: 1. Karnataka (Shikha Tandon, D. Mrudula, Pooja Alva and M. Kshipra) 4:50.92; 2. Police (Lisa Mahanta, Richa Mishra, Bhavna Sharma and Rishu Mehra) 5:00.10; 3. Bengal (Debolina Rajak, Eesha, Santana Patra and Tagari Baidya) 5:05.09.

Team championship: Men: 1. Police (156 points), 2. Karnataka (124); Women: 1. Karnataka (181 points), 2. Police 137. Overall: Karnataka (305 points).

Best swimmer: Men: Arjun Muralidharan (Pol) 30 points; Women: Shikha Tandon (Kar) 35 points.

Diving: Team Championship: Men: Maharashtra (23 points); Women: Railways (29 points).

Best Diver: Men: Viraj Patil (Mah) 21 points; Women: Tanya Ganguly (Rlys) 14 points.

Waterpolo: Men (final): Services bt Railways 7-6; (for third place): Police bt Bengal 8-6; Women (final): Kerala bt Police 4-2; (for third place): Bengal bt Maharashtra 5-4.

Best player: Men: S. Jayan (Railways); Women: Biji Verghese (Kerala).

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