Benedicton Rohit breaks Virdhawal Khade’s 16-year-old 100m Butterfly record

Tamil Nadu’s Benedicton Rohit shone like a lodestar on the opening day of the National Aquatics Championships at the Kalinga Stadium Aquatic Centre in Bhubaneswar on Sunday, winning the men’s 100m Butterfly in 52.57 seconds and scripting a National Record that had stood for nearly 16 years.

He broke Virdhawal Khade’s record of 52.77 seconds set in the Asian Age Group Championships in Tokyo in August 2009. Sajan Prakash, who has 10 sub-54 second efforts and the 17 next fastest times by an Indian in the event, led the bunch that heartily congratulated Benedicton Rohit for the National Record.

The 21-year-old, who hails from Tirunelveli district and is an Anna University alumnus, gave an indication of things to come when he won the event in the National Games in Haldwani on January 29 this year in a time of 53.89 seconds, beating Mihir Ambre and Sajan Prakash in the process. He topped that with a 53.55 second effort in the heats on Sunday morning.

Benediction Rohit’s achievement overshadowed gallant efforts by Aneesh S Gowda who came up with his career best time to win a tough men’s 200m Freestyle and a deadheat in the women’s 100m Butterfly where Odidha’s Shristi Upadhyaya, with a personal best time, matched Railways’ Astha Chaudhary in edging out Olympian Dhinidhi Desinghu to third place.

Clocking 1:50.85, Aneesh Gowda (Karnataka) shaved more than a second off his previous best time of 1:51.88 achieved at the 2022 National Games in Rajkot. His time found a place in the top 15 by Indians in the event. He is now the fifth fastest Indian in the 200m Freestyle behind Srihari Nataraj, Sajan Prakash, Virdhawal Khade and Aaron d’Souza.

Karnataka’s Dhinidhi Desinghu was unable to overcome a slow start and could not get past Shristi Upadhyaya and Astha Chaudhary in the women’s 100m Butterfly final. Dhinidhi Desinnghu topped the heats in 1:03.46 and was slower in the final while Shristi Upadhyaya came up with a personal best for the second time in the day. 

Delhi’s Bhavya Sachdeva claimed the women’s 400m Freestyle gold quite comfortably in the end after battling Karnataka’s Meenakshi Menon till the halfway stage. Maharashtra’s Aditi Satish Hegde. Railways’ Harshita Jayaram came up with the second fastest time by an Indian in 200m Butterfly – AK Linyesha clocked 2:37.35 two years ago. 

The results (finals):

Men

200m Freestyle: 1. Aneesh S Gowda (Karnataka) 1:50.85; 2. Sajan Prakash (Police) 1:50.86; 3. Shoan Ganguly (Karnataka) 1:51.60.

200m Breaststroke: 1. Danush Suresh (Tamil Nadu) 2:19.17; 2. L Manikanta (Karnataka) 2:20.56; 3. Rana Pratap (Services) 2:21.08.

100m Butterfly: 1. Benedicton Rohit (Tamil Nadu) 52.57 seconds (New National Record. Old: 52.77, Virdhawal Khade, Tokyo, 2009); 2. Sajan Prakash (Police) 53.51; 3. Bikram Changmai (Railways) 54.35.    

4x200m Freestyle: 1. Karnataka (Tanish George Mathew, Chinthan S Shetty, S Dharshan and Aneesh S Gowda) 7:40.90; 2. Maharashtra 7:44.98; 3. Services 7:46.29.

Women

400m Freestyle: 1. Bhavya Sachdeva (Delhi) 4:26.66; 2. Aditi Satish Hegde (Maharashtra) 4:29.48; 3. Vritti Aggarwal (Telangana) 4:30.05.

200m Breaststroke: 1. Harshitha Jayaram (Railways) 2:37.72; 2. Thanya Shadakshari (Karnataka) 2:39.41; 3. Saanvi Deshwal (Maharashtra) 2:40.24.

100m Butterfly: 1. Shristi Upadhyaya (Odisha) 1:03.50 and Astha Choudhary (Railways) 1:03.50; 3. Dhinidhi Desinghu (Karnataka) 1:03.52.

4x200m Freestyle: 1. Karnataka (Vihita Nayana Loganathan, Meenakshi Menon, S Trisha Sindhu and Dhinidhi Desinghu) 8:52.32 (New Meet Record. Old: 8:53.83, Maharashtra, Pune, 2012); 2. Maharashtra 8:57.68; 3. Railways 8:58.4