Suresh sinks two marks

BANGALORE, June 9: Karnataka continued to lead the medals tally in the swimming competition. But, for the first time in the seven-day event...

BANGALORE, June 9: Karnataka continued to lead the medals tally in the swimming competition. But, for the first time in the seven-day event, the hosts shared the day’s honours at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre pool on Monday.

The hosts took their gold haul to 19, silver to 12 and bronze to 8 for a total of 39 medals with one Games record being bettered by Nisha Millet and one National record set by Sajini Shetty. Yet, it was Kerala’s Suresh Kumar who blitzed the pool with two National record performances – one individual and one in the relay.

Overcoming a foul start in the 200m butterfly, Suresh Kumar paced himself well to win the race in a handsome time of 2:06.88 which bettered his own National mark (2:08.38, Railways – 1995) and his Games mark of 2:11.68 for Kerala in 1994. Despite a poor start, Suresh who trained for less than two months under former international Wilson Cherian in Allappuzha, beat back the opposition.

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Focussing on speed work in the sprint helped him do the first 50 in a good time of 28.98 sec with Elvis Ali Hazarika (Assam) and Hakimuddin (Karnataka) vying with each other for the second place. And, for a brief while, Satish Kumar (Karnataka) gave both of them a run for their money before running out of steam.

Suresh completed the 100 in 1:00.95. Though he returned with his best ever time, a better turn could have improved his record further. In contrast, Elvis cashed in on a good turn to power ahead of Hakim for the silver in 2:13.95. Hakim was third in 2:14.24 sec.

As for the hosts, there was joy and disappointment in equal measure. While Sajini Shetty bettered the National record in the 100 m breaststroke, Nisha thought that she joined her statemate on the record breaker’s list in the 400 m freestyle. Apparently, a fault in the electronic clock caused her time to be wrongly given as 4:38.55 while official time was 4:39.55 which was a new Games record.

The National record stands in her teammate Meghana Narayan’s name (4:39.00, 1995). Today, Meghana clocked 4:49.25 for a silver, while Delhi’s Naina Sen (4:52.72) took the bronze.

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Sajini Shetty set a hot pace and faced no challenge while finishing in a record time of 1:17.35 (Old Sajini 1:20.43, 1995, Games record 1:22.13, ’94). Later, twenty five-year-old Suresh Kumar swam a blistering third lap in the 4×100 freestyle relay after Anthony Manimayil and I C Raju, while Sebastian Xavier swam the anchor leg as Kerala sliced 1.20 seconds off the National record held by Railways since 1995.