Shoan Ganguly shines with second Medley National Record

Shoan Ganguly established himself as the country’s best contemporary all-round male swimmer by winning the 400m Medley in a National Record time of 4:24.64 on the final day of the National Aquatics Championships at the Kalinga Stadium Aquatics Complex in Bhubaneswar on Thursday.

It was always going to a tough race with Shoan Ganguly, erstwhile record holder Aryan Nehra (Gujarat) and Madhya Pradesh’s Advait Page expected to battle it out for the podium places. But it appeared as if Shoan Ganguly had different ideas when he opened up a lead with a strong Butterfly leg and sustained it on the Backstroke.

To Advait Page’s credit, he chased Shoan Ganguly gamely on the first lap of the Breaststroke leg but could not find the power to draw abreast. The 20-year-old Bengali who had made Goa his home before moving to Bengaluru, raced ahead to be able to finish inside his old National record time of 4:25.47.

Aryan Nehra was the first to congratulate Shoan Ganguly even as Advait Page was dealing with the thought that his personal best time in the event was not enough to dislodge the Karnataka swimmer from the pedestal as the country’s best all-rounder. Shoan Ganguly had scripted a new National Record in the 200m Medley on Monday.

Vihitha Nayana Loganathan expectedly completed the Backstroke treble gold, adding the 100m title to the 50m and 200m crowns she had won earlier in the week. Bhavya Sachdeva (Delhi) won her second gold of the meet, the 800m Freestyle, while Harshitha Jayaram (Karnataka) also claimed a second gold, winning the 100m Breaststroke.

In the other men’s finals on Thursday, Heer Gitesh Shah (Maharashtra) claimed the 100m Freestyle gold in an exciting race while his State-mate Rishabh Anupam Das took top place in the 100m Backstroke to secure his second gold and Likith Selvaraj Prema put behind his disappointment of being medal-less in the 50m Breaststroke by winning the 100m event.

Karnataka finished on top with 16 gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze for a total of 41 medals. No other team won half as many gold or even total. Its men picked up 158 points and the women’s squad 153 to top the charts. Quite naturally, Shoan Ganguly and Dhinidhi Desinghu were named Best Male and Female Swimmers respectively.

If Karnataka had any competition in Bhubaneswar, it came from the Tamil Nadu men’s team which won 7 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals. However, the Karnataka men finished on top of the points table by winning 20 medals in all, including 5 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze medals. Karnataka women claimed 10 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze.

The results (finals):

Men

100m Freestyle: 1. Heer Gitesh Shah (Maharashtra) 51.29 seconds; 2. Tanish George Mathew (Karnataka) 51.30; 3. Rishabh Anupam Das (Maharashtra) 51.43.

100m Backstroke: 1. Rishabh Anupam Das (Maharashtra) 56.13 seconds; 2. Utkarsh Santosh Patil (Karnataka) 56.29; 3. Akash Mani (Karnataka) 56.35.

100m Breaststroke: 1. Likith Selvaraj Prema (Services) 1:03.06; 2. Danush Suresh (Tamil Nadu) 1:03.11; 3. MS Yadesh Babu (Tamil Nadu) 1:03.81.

400m Medley: 1. Shoan Ganguly (Karnataka) 4:24.64 (New National and Meet Records. Old NR: 4:25.47, Shoan Ganguly, Couva Trinidad, 2023; Old MR: 4:25.62, Aryan Nehra, Hyderabad, 2023); 2. Advait Page (Madhya Pradesh) 4:26.90; 3. Aryan Nehra (Gujarat) 4:30.35.

Women

800m Freestyle: 1. Bhavya Sachdeva (Delhi) 9:09.67; 2. Vritti Agarwal (Telangana) 9:18.16; 3. Aditi Satish Hegde (Maharashtra) 9:18.20.

100m Backstroke: 1. Vihitha Nayana Loganathan (Karnataka) 1:05.18; 2. Soubrity Mondal (Bengal) 1:05.19; 3. Pratyasa Ray (Odisha) 1:05.64.

100m Breaststroke: 1. Harshitha Jayaram (Railways) 1:13.24; 2. Mannata Mishra (Odisha) and Saanvi Deshwal (Maharashtra) 1:15.57.