Shoan Ganguly, Dhinidhi Desinghu overcome disappointments to rewrite National marks

Karnataka’s Shoan Ganguly and Dhinidhi Desinghu put back opening day disappointments to rewrite National records in the men’s 200m Medley and women’s 200m Freestyle events in the National Aquatics Championships at the Kalinga Stadium Aquatics Complex in Bhubaneswar on Monday.

There were National Records in both 4x100m Medley and 4x100m Freestyle Mixed Relays on Monday. Tamil Nadu had the best all-round relay quartet to claim the Medley relay and best its own mark set last year while Karnataka put together the best Freestyle relay squad to improve on its predecessor’s national mark.

Shoan Ganguly was not in the mix in the Butterfly leg but moved up to be in the reckoning by the time he turned after the Backstroke lap. He opened up the lead on the Breaststroke leg and was not challenged in the Freestyle lap either. His showing was so commanding that Vinayak Shankar (Services) used his pace to come home inside the earlier mark.

Olympian Dhinidhi Desinghu was determination personified in the 200m Freestyle final. She shot into the lead and kept increasing it on each of the four laps. She was in a league of her own, leaving Delhi’s Bhavya Sachdeva and Maharashtra’s Aditi Satish Hegde to edge a fast-tiring Janhabi Kashyap out of the podium with fine efforts on the final lap.

Both Shoan Ganguly and Dhinidhi Desinghu had to settle for bronze medals in their opening events on Sunday. Shoan Ganguly had finished third in the men’s 200m Freestyle behind Aneesh Gowda and Sajan Prakash while Dhinidhi Desinghu watched Shristi Upadhyaya (Odisha) and Astha Chaudhary (Railways) take gold in a deadhead 0.02 seconds ahead of her.

Tamil Nadu’s MS Yadesh Babu, a Civil Engineering student from Chennai, turned the tables on Vidith S Shankar (Karnataka) in the men’s 50m Breaststroke final. It was a pacy contest that saw the medalists finish inside 29 seconds. Vidith Shankar had added the National Games gold to the title he won in the National Championships in Mangalore last year.

Tamil Nadu’s Jashua Thomas emerged the fastest man of the championships with a 23.06 second victory in the 50m Freestyle. At the other end of the spectrum, in the most demanding endurance event, the 1500m Freestyle, Kushagra Rawat (Delhi) beat his friends and competitors, Aryan Nehra (Gujarat) and Advait Page (Madhya Pradesh) to claim the top prize. 

The results (finals): 

50m Freestyle: 1. Jashua Thomas (Tamil Nadu) 23.06 seconds; 2. Heer Gitesh Shah (Maharashtra) 23.42; 3. Akash Mani (Karnataka) 23.46.

1500m Freestyle: 1. Kushagra Rawat (Delhi) 15:32.95; 2. Aryan Nehra (Gujarat) 15:52.97; 3. Advait Page (Madhya Pradesh) 16:01.54.

50m Breaststroke: 1. MS Yadesh Babu (Tamil Nadu) 28.35 seconds; 2. Vidith S Shankar (Karnataka) 28.50; 3. Danush Suresh (Tamil Nadu) 28.71.

200m Medley: 1. Shoan Ganguly (Karnataka) 2:04.34 (New National Record. Old: 2:05.57, Sajan Prakash, Goa, 2023); 2. Vinayak Vijay Shankar (Services) 2:05.34; 3. Siva Sridhar (Karnataka) 2:05.75.

200m Freestyle: 1. Dhinidhi Desinghu (Karnataka) 2:02.97 (New National Record. Old: 2:04.24, Dhinidhi Desinghu, Hyderabad, 2003); 2. Bhavya Sachdeva (Delhi) 2:07.45; 3. Aditi Satish Hegde (Maharashtra) 2:07.55.

50m Breaststroke: 1. Mittapalli Rithvika (Telangana) 33.98 seconds; 2. Harshitha Jayaram (Railways) 34.21; 3. Avni Chhabra (Punjab) 34.51.

200m Medley: 1. Saanvi Deshwal (Maharashtra) 2:21.87; 2. Shreenithi Natesan (Tamil Nadu) 2:23.40; 3. Thanya Shadakshari (Karnataka) 2:23.67

4x100m Freestyle: 1. Karnataka 3:41.18 (New National record. old: 3:42.92, Karnataka, Hyderabad, 2023); 2. Tamil Nadu 3:42.99; 3. Railways 3:43.00.

4x100m Medley: 1. Tamil Nadu (Pramiti Gnanasekharan, MS Yadesh Babu, Benedicton Rohit, Deeksha Sivakumar) 4:03.3.44 (New National Record. Old: 4:05.30, Tamil Nadu, Mangalore, 2024); 2. Railways 4:05.14; 3. Karnataka 4:08.13.