Millet sinks another record; clean sweep for Police

Other gold winners on the day were J Abhijit (200 IM) and T K Senthilkumar (200m backstroke) of Police and Mayura Kumar of Tamil Nadu (200m backstroke).

Millet was on her own after the turn with statemate K Chitra and Delhi’s Richa Mishra making a valiant bid to make a fight of it. Past the 100m mark, Chitra overtook Richa who had already picked up a gold in 200m individual medley and a silver in the 200m backstroke behindMayura Kumar. Meanwhile, Millet, who was on course for a national record, finished in 2:08.68 to better her own mark of 2:10.54 set last year. Chitra was second at 2:18.10 while 14-year-old Richa settled for variety a bronze at 2:22.32.

After a foul start in the men’s 200m freestyle, Kailash Nath of Police and Martin Joseph (SSCB) set the pace while Hakimuddin, who is with the BSF, bided his time. Inching up after 60 metres, Hakimuddin pulled ahead. The body length lead grew steadily and Hakimuddin stopped the clock at 1:58.70.

His time bettered friend Abhijit’s meet record of 1:59.53 but fell short of Abhijit’s national record of 1:58.68. Kailash Nath (2:02.53) had to draw on his reserves to hold off Martin Joseph (2:03.76).

Abhijit, however, was not his usual self in the 200m individual medley. The lack of practice showed. The fluency in his strokes, the effortless rhythm, which are his hallmark, were missing. All the same, his effort fetched him a gold in 2:18.08 ahead of team-mate Deepak KumarSingh (2:19.22) and Shibu Sebastian (2:21.52). Karnataka’s 13-year-old Mario Johnson finished in 2:21.74 to show that he will be a force to reckon with in the future.

RESULTS

Men: 200 Individual Medley: J Abhijit (Pol), Deepak Kumar (Pol), Shibu Sebastian (Ser). T:2:18.09; 200m backstroke: T K Senthilkumar (Pol), Sandeep Kakkar (Del), Sanjay Khara (Ser). T: 2:14.63s; 200m freestyle: S H Hakimuddin (Pol), Kailash Nath (Pol), Martin Joseph (Ser). T: 1:58.70 (NMR) old: J Abhijit 1:59.53 (1995). 4×100 medley relay: Police, Railways, Delhi. T: 4:06.51 (NMR) old: Railways 4:07.18 (1994).

Women: 200 IM: Richa Mishra (Del), Shikha Tandon (Kar), Abhinaya Shetty (Kar). T: 2:32.29. 200m backstroke: Mayura Kumar (TN), Richa Mishra (Del), Abhinaya Shetty (Kar). T: 2:33.21. 200m freestyle: Nisha Millet (Kar), K Chitra (Kar), Richa Mishra (Del). T: 2:08.68 (NR) old: Nisha Millet 2:10.54 (1997). 4×100 medley relay: Karnataka, Kerala, Bengal. T:4:46.91 (NMR) old: Karnataka 4:47.88(1996).

Diving: Men: High board: Umesh Prasad (Rlys), BS Dighe (Rlys), Sanjay G Uttekar (Ser). Points: 422.05.

Women: 1m spring board: Annika Madgavkar (Goa), Sweta Gogate (Rlys), Suparna Paul (WB). Pts: 188.25.

Waterpolo: Men: Delhi bt Karnataka 12-8, Bihar bt Uttar Pradesh 12-1, Kerala bt Punjab 5-4 Bengal bt Madhya Pradesh 14-1.

Women: Maharashtra bt Manipur 12-4, Kerala bt Karnataka 11-2.