Mixed fortunes for Abhijit

Bangalore, June 8: Some call him the "Water devil". But today, J Abhijit showed that he is human, after all. The gifted swimmer s...

Bangalore, June 8: Some call him the "Water devil". But today, J Abhijit showed that he is human, after all. The gifted swimmer slipped up slightly and had to settle for a silver in the 200 m breaststroke an event in which he was eager to go for a National record. However, 18-year-old Umesh Tokas of Delhi had other ideas, as he showed in his gold-winning performance. Thus on the fifth day of swimming competition, as the spotlights shifted from powerhouses Karnataka and Kerala.

Nineteen-year-old Umesh Tokas stunned everybody at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre pool where Karnataka have ruled the past four days. The hosts added three more golds to their kitty, accounting for two National records.

Abhijit, however, gained some consolation by winning the 400m freestyle in 4:13.70 secs — bettering his own National record of 4:16.08 (1994, Goa) — almost unchallenged. Finishing the first 100 in one minute and the second in 2:03, Abhijit slightly eased up in the third (3:07) and fourth (4:13).

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The race for the second place was between Hakimuddin of Karnataka and Kailash Nath of Delhi with the former having an edge. But, in the last 50 metres, the Delhi swimmer came up strongly in 4:19.18 sec to push Hakim to third position (4:29.71).

Abhijit’s second event on the day was the 200m breaststroke. Mentally ready, the 19-year-old was quickly off the blocks with only National record holder Harinder Singh of Delhi threatening to challenge him. Umesh Tokas was not far away from either but none perceived him as a threat.

It was towards the last 20 metres that Umesh came up with a strong burst to power past a fading Harinder and then, as the spectators gasped, rushed past Abhijit to finish in a new Games record time of 2:31.93. Abhijit came in behind Khazan Singh’s protege at 2:32.46. He later came up to his coach and said apologetically: “I never saw him (Umesh).”

The women’s events were pretty predictable with the 200m butterfly being a race between Karnataka’s Sajini Shetty and Meghana Narayan. Meghana added her second individual gold when she completed the race in a meet record time of 2:25.24 (Old Bula Choudhary, 2:30.95, 1987) with Sajini (2:28.86) second and M Usha (Kerala) third in 2:37.56.

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The 4×100 m relay medley provided a thrilling end to the day’s events when Karnataka’s Abhinaya Shetty, Sajini Shetty, Meghana Narayan and Nisha Millet stopped the clock at 4:42.73 to improve their own National record of 4:47.88 created two years ago.

Maharashtra’s Delna Dhumgara, Zeba Wadia, Sindhoor Thakkar and Tejaswi Shetty narrowly missed the Games mark of 4:56.20. Their quartet finished 0.054 seconds off that time. Delhi (Richa Mishra, Rakhi Mehra, Charu Misra and Naina sen) were third in 4:59.81 seconds.