In-form Ridhima breaks another national record in swimming

Karnataka swimmer Ridhima Veerendrakumar came up with yet another record-breaking performance at the 37th Sub Junior and 47th Junior National Championships as she bagged the gold medal in 50m backstroke for group II girls, here on Thursday.

Much like her swim in the 100m backstroke on Wednesday, Ridhima got off to a quick start and built on her lead with powerful strokes to clock 29.94 seconds to erase Maana Patel’s record of 30.37 seconds created in 2014, Bhopal.

Shalini Dixit of Karnataka bagged the silver medal in this event with a time of 31.98 seconds while Sri Nitya Sago of Telangana took home the bronze medal with a time of 32.68 seconds.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra’s Apeksha Fernandes created a new national record in the 50m breast stroke for group I girls. She timed 34.44 in the final to better her own mark set earlier in the heats where she clocked 34.57 seconds to erase the previous record of 34.06 held by Annie Jain of Gujarat created in 2019, Rajkot.

Tanisha Chheda, also from Maharashtra took home the silver in this event with a time of 35.43 while Anvita A Gowda of Karnataka won bronze with a time of 36.37 seconds.

In another incredible race of the day, Yadesh Babu MS who broke the national record set by Ansh Arora (29.99 seconds) of UP in 2015, Pune with a time of 29.83 seconds clocked in the heats, was pushed to the fourth in the final. He was pipped by Meet Makhija of Maharashtra with a time of 30.04 while Bengal’s Swadesh Mondal took the silver with a time of 30.29 seconds and Srish Maulik of Maharashtra took home the bronze with a time of 30.39 seconds.

A new national record was also created in the 200m IM for Group III Girls with Karnataka’s Dhinidhi Desinghu clocking 2:33.36 to erase Vania Kapoor’s record of 2:37.99 set in 2013, Goa.

In the 200m butterfly for group I boys, Gujarat’s Aryan Panchal clocked 2:03.52 to better Supriya Mondal’s national record of 2:03.63 created in 2014, Bhopal.

Young sensation from Karnataka Jas Singh, on the other hand, went on to win his fifth individual gold medal today. He clocked 42.18 to finish first in the 50m breast stroke for group V boys.