Mario Johnson sinks national mark

PUNE, July 19: After two days of average competition, the Mhalunge Balewadi sports complex pool sprung into life today. Three national reco...

PUNE, July 19: After two days of average competition, the Mhalunge Balewadi sports complex pool sprung into life today. Three national records were re-written on the penultimate day of the 24th Junior National swimming championship.

Mario Johnson of Karnataka was the trend-setter with a new national record in the 400m individual medley (Boys Group-II), followed by Richa Misra of Delhi over the same distance for girls, while Bengal’s 4x100m medley relay quartet rounded up the eventful day.

Assam’s Elvis Ali Hazarika, who holds many records in Group-III and Abhinaya Shetty of Karnataka set the pool ablaze by emerging the fastest of the meet, winning the 50 free-style.

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Mario Johnson, a IX standard student from St. Joseph’s Boys High School in Bangalore, who was rather unfortunate on being disqualified on Tuesday in the 200 metre breast-stroke, was at his best today which earned him gold in the 400m IM. Mario’s 5:11.50 thus helped him erase the 12-year-old mark set by Reza Shirazi of Maharashtra in the 1984 edition at Mumbai by over 1.05 seconds.

Richa stopped the clock at 5:37.38 in the 400m IM, erasing the 1984 record of 5:50.74 set by Bula Choudhary of Bengal. The three who followed Richa bettered the national mark, which included Maharashtra’s Nanita Khurana (5:43.27), Malavika CS of Karnataka (5:44.41), and Radhika Lakhani (Maharashtra) 5:47.49.

The Bengal boys’ relay squad of Sujit Ganguly, Subhankar Chittri, Ranbir Banerjee and Akbar Ali Mir accounted for the third record of the day with 4:23.97 in the 4×100 medley relay final, sinking the 1987 mark set by Maharashtra of 4:24.32.

Karnataka continue to lead in the medal tally with 21 golds while Maharashtra are second with six.

Result:

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Boys: 400m IM (group II): Mario Johnson (Kar) -1, A. Ramesh (Ker), Prameet Bhargav (Guj) 3-tim; 5:10.50 mins (NMR); 200m Butterfly (Group I): Elvis Ali Hazarika (Assam)-1, Pankaj Das (Ben)-2, S.H. Hakimuddin (Kar)-3-Tim: 2.12.64 mins; 100m Free-style (Group II): R. Reji Kumar (Ker)-1, Amol Borkar (Mah)-2, Akbar Ali Mir (Ben)-3-tim: 58.90 secs; 200m Breaststroke (Group II): R. Veermani (TN)-1-, Vidhan Mistry (Del)-2, Kapil Gadgil (Mah)-3-tim: 2.45.07 mins; 200m Butterfly (Group II): Mario Johnson (Kar)-1, Satyapriya Gupta (UP)-2, A. Ramesan (Ker)-3-tim: 2.22.45 mins; 50m Free-style (Group I): Elvis Ali Hazarika (Assam)-1, Surjit Ganguly (Ben)-2, Mohit Chaudhary (Del)-3-tim: 25.42 secs; 4x100m Medley Relay: Bengal (Surjit Ganguly, S. Chettri, R. Banerjee, Akbar Ali Mir)-1, Karnataka (S.V. Pritam, V. Kakaria, Mario Johnson, S.H. Hakimuddin)-2, Delhi: (K. Sachin, S. Rajbir, Pawan Kumar, Mohit Choudhary)-3- time: 4.23.97 mins (NMR);

Girls: 400m IM (Group II): Richa Mishra (Del)-1, Nanita Khurana (Mah)-2, C.S. Malovika (Kar)-3-tim: 5.37.38 mins (NMR); 200m Buterfly (Group II): M. Usha (Ker)-1, Debjani Bhaduri (Ben)–2, K. Chitra (Kar)-3-tim: 2.38.42 mins; 100m Free-style (Group II): Sindhur Thakkar (Mah)-1, Reshma Millet (Kar)-2, Merina Thomas (Kar)-3-time: 1.04.17 mins; 200m breast stroke (Group II): Manushi Jain (Mah)-1, Kavya Sunderraj (Kar)-2, K. Chitra (Kar)-3-tim: 3.01.69 mins; 200m Butterfly (Group II): Nanita Khurana (Mah)-1, Divya Bajaj (Kar)-2, Radhika Lakhani (Mah)-3-tim: 2.37.19 mins; 50m Free-style (Group I): Abhinaya Shetty (Kar)-1, Roshni Prabhu (Kar)-2, Rajashri Chakraborty (Ben)-3-Tim: 29.72 secs; 4x400m Medley Relay: Karnataka (Abhinaya Shetty, Kavita Sunderaj, Divya Bajaj, K. Chitra)-1, Maharashtra (Delna Bhumgara, Radhika Lakhani, Nanita Khurana, Sindur Thakar)-2, Kerala (V. Remya, Radhika Nair, M. Usha, S. Sumisha)-3-tim: 4.56.57 mins