Rujula, Bhavya steal Sajan and Srihari’s thunder with National records

Rujula S (Karnataka) and Bhavya Sachdeva (Delhi) made it a day to remember by creating new National records in the shortest and longest races in the National Aquatics Championships in the Kalinga Stadium Aquatics Complex in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Rujula won the 50m Freestyle in 26.26 seconds while Bhavya topped the 1500m Freestyle in 17:35.07.

Their record-breaking efforts stole the thunder from Sajan Prakash and Srihari Nataraj, whose domination of the men’s 200m Butterfly and 50m Backstroke events respectively would have captured the imagination of the fans on another day. But by bettering records that had stood for 17 year and 10 years respectively, Rujula and Bhavya trained the spotlight on themselves.

Rujula, 17, made the most of a great start and surged to victory to earn the fastest woman of the meet crown. Railways’ Avantika Chavan drew some consolation from beating National Games champion Dhinidhi Desinghu to the silver medal. The teenaged Olympian found it hard to overcome a sluggish start but did well to rise to take the third spot with a personal best.

Bhavya Sachdeva stepped up the pace in the final few laps to power while Vritti Agarwal had to find the reserves of power to keep Thanya Shadakshari from dislodging her from the silver medal place. The Delhi 20-year-old, whose previous best of 17:40.82 was clocked in the National Games in Goa in 2023, did well to push herself despite opening a comfortable lead.

Six swimmers finished under 18 minutes. The import of that can be understood when one realised that there are only 11 such times recorded against the names of seven Indians before this race, with Malavika Vishwanath (2), Vritti Agarwal (2), and Bhavya Sachdeva (3) being the only ones with multiple such efforts.

A fair idea of the extent of domination the men’s 200m Butterfly by Sajan Prakash and 50m Backstroke by Srihari Nataraj can be had from the fact that the former owns the top 40 times clocked by an Indian in the event and the latter still has the 35 fastest times in the backstroke sprint.

Sajan Prakash was in against the clock and won the race 1:58.98. His pace egged Bikram Changmai (Railways) and S Dharshan (Karnataka) to find their personal best times. Similarly, Srihari Nataraj’s presence fired up Rishabh Das and Akash Mani to find their career best times in the 50m Backstroke even as he won in 25.70 seconds. 

The results (finals): 

Men

400m Freestyle: 1. Aryan Nehra (Gujarat) 3:55.96; 2. Kushagra Rawat (Delhi) 3:56.84; 3. Aneesh S Gowda (Karnataka) 3:57.17.

50m Backstroke: 1. Srihari Nataraj (Karnataka) 25.70 seconds; 2. Rishabh Anupam Das (Maharashtra) 26.02; 3. Akash Mani (Karnataka) 26.12.

200m Butterfly: 1. Sajan Prakash (Police)  1:58.98; 2. Bikram Changmai (Railways) 2:02.13; 3. S Dharshan (Karnataka) 2:03.11.

4x100m Medley: 1. Tamil Nadu 3:45.09 (New National record. Old: 3:45.66, Tamil Nadu, Mangalore, 2024); 2. Karnataka 3:48.16; 3. Railways 3:49.60.

Women

50m Freestyle: 1. Rujula S (Karnataka) 26.36 seconds (New National and Meet Record. Old NR: 26.37, Shikha Tandon, Kuala Lumpur, 2008; Old MR: 26.47, Rujuta Khade, Hyderabad, 2023); 2. Avantika Sudhir Chavan (Railways) 26.58; 3. Dhinidhi Desinghu (Karnataka) 26.69.

1500m Freestyle: 1. Bhavya Sachdeva (Delhi) 17:35.07 (New National and Meet Record. Old: 17:39.16, Malavika Vishwanath, Rajkot, 2015); 2. Vritti Agarwal (Telangana) 17:41.36; 2. Thanya Shadakshari (Karnataka) 17:41.45.

50m Backstroke: 1. Vihitha Nayana Loganathan (Karnataka) 29.99 seconds; 2. Sanjana Manguesh Prabhugaonkar (Goa) 30.68; 3. Soubrity Mondal (Bengal) 30.70.

200m Butterfly: 1. Astha Choudhury (Railways) 2:20.63; 2. Roshini Balasubramaniam (Tamil Nadu) 2:20.77; 3. Shristi Upadhyaya (Odisha) 2:23.11.

4x100 Medley: 1. Karnataka (Vihitha Nayana Loganathan, Manavi Varma, Dhinidhi Desinghu, Rujula S) 4:25.92; 3. Odisha 4:27.10; 3. Bengal 4:29.86.