GUWAHATI: On an eventful day when five records were rewritten, Maharashtra's Veerdhaval Khare and Karnataka's Shikha Tandon emerged the fastest in the 33rd National Games at the Dr. Zakir Hussian Aquatic Complex here on Monday.

Khare, en route to winning the men's 50m freestyle gold, became the second swimmer in the country to go under 24 seconds after the peerless Sebastian Xavier. Khare, who broke the existing mark of 24.27s set by Xavier at the 1997 Games in the heats with a time of 24.18s, improved upon it in the final with 23.92s.

Elated by the feat, Xavier, the present all-comers record holder at 22.89 established at the 1998 Bangalore Nationals, opined that Khare had the potential to go very far. When asked whether all are witnessing the emergence of another swimmer like him, Xavier said, "Khare has the potential to become one of the best in India. He has a good height and the right technique to excel. He is young and his achievements are quite impressive."

Shikha's performance

Richa Mishra's effort to equal her previous Games-haul of seven gold medals was halted by Shikha Tandon in becoming the fastest woman. Shikha, who has two gold medals from relay events, put paid to the aspirations of Richa with a powerful surge to clock 27.34s, a Games record, bettering her own mark of 27.45s set in 2002.

Richa, who had bagged four gold medals in the first two days, annexed two more to make it six. She won 200m backstroke and 400m individual medley relegating Fariha Zaman of Assam to silver position in one of the closest contests involving the Delhi swimmer so far.

Richa's time of 2:29.34s was the new Games record. It shattered the hearts of thousands gathered here to support the local girl and also the old mark of 2:30.32s by Shikha.

Big fight

There was a rare heat in the men's 200m backstroke with Rehan Poncha and Rohit R. Havaldar, both of Karnataka, clocking 2:11.65s to share the first place. The timings also deleted the time of 2:12.56s by Bhanu Sachdeva from the record books. Srinand Srinivas joined Poncha for another double for Karnataka in the 400m individual medley, which the latter won with a record time of 4:44.32s.

The results: Men: 50m freestyle: 1. Veerdhaval Khare (Mah) 23.92s (NGR, Old Record 24.27s, Sebastian Xavier, 1997), 2. T.A. Sujith (Ser) 24.14, 3. Aniketh D'Souza (Kar) 24.65. 200m backstroke: 1. Rehan Poncha and Rohit Havaldar (both Kar) 2:11.65 (NGR, OR: 2:12.56, Bhanu Sachdeva, 2002), 3. Praveen Tokas (Del) 2:11.67 (BGR). 400m I.M.: 1. Rehan Poncha (Kar) 4:44.32s (NGR, OR: 4:47.94s, J. Abhijith, 1997), 2. Srinand Srinivas (Kar) 4:46.58 (BGR), 3. Aditya Sangvekar (Mah) 4:47.86.

Women: 50m freestyle: 1. Shikha Tandon (Kar) 27.34s (NGR, OR: 27.45s, Shikha, 2002), 2. Lekha Kamath (Mah) 28.03, 3. Kshipra Mahajan (Kar) 28.08. 200m backstroke: 1. Richa Mishra (Del) 2:29.34s (NGR, OR: 2:30.32, Shikha Tandon, 2002), 2. Fariha Zaman (Asm) 2:29.81 (BGR), 3. Sony Cyriac (Ker) 2:34.67. 400m I.M.: 1. Richa Mishra (Del) 5:12.65s, 2. Pooja Alva (Kar) 5:17.82, 3. Madhavi Giri (Kar) 5:25.61.

Diving, women's highboard: 1. Yogita S. Walunj (Mah) 225.40 pts, 2. Rupali B. Shinde (Mah) 186.70, 3. Th. Debina Devi (Mani) 173.63.

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