12-year-old Jayaveena wins silver; swimmers set new records

Tapan Mohanta

Ranchi, Feb 16 (PTI) Twelve-year-old Tamil Nadu girl A VJayaveena made a big splash towards stardom, even as swimmersrewrote four records on day four of the competition in the34th National Games here today.

The day also saw two big upsets when Asian Games bronzemedalist Virdhawal Khade faltered in the 200m butterfly tosettle for a silver, while Richa Mishra aiming for her seventhgold returned empty-handed in the 50m breastroke, whereJayaveena hogged the limelight.

Daughter of noted Tamil actor Vijay Kumar, Jayaveena, aclass VII student, claimed a silver medal when she finishedbehind Maharashtra''s Poorva Shetye who touched the pad with arecord timing of 35.74.

Maharashtra also bagged the bronze through MonioqueGandhi (37.17).

Poorva''s timing broke the nine-year-old record held bySaba Sait (36.06), even as all eyes at the Veer Budhu BhagatAquatic Stadium in Mega Sports Complex here were on the babyswimmer in the star-studded field that also had three nationalrecord holder Richa Mishra.

For golden girl Richa, who is participaing in all 17individual events, this was her first failure as she finisheda disappointing fifth.

The ace swimmer settled for only one gold medal that shewon in the 200m butterfly with a timing of 2:24.45 to make itseven overall; she also has a silver medal.

Karnataka''s Pooja Alva (02:25.72) and Maharashtra''sRujuta Bhatt (02:29.23) bagged the silver and bronzerespectively in the 200m butterfly.

Continuing their glorious team run, Karnataka''s men''s andrelay teams won two gold medals with record timings, whileinternational swimmer Sandeep Sejwal set the fourth meetrecord of the day.

Poster boy of Indian swimming Khade was left heart brokenwhen he lost out to Vishnu K M of services by a fraction ofsecond for the gold medal. Vishnu stopped the clock at02:10.34, while Khade was 02:10.65.

Delhi''s Tarun Tokas bagged the bronze with a timing of02:11.70.

Karanataka''s men''s relay team of Gagan A P, Arjun J P,Ashwin Menon and Rohit Havaldar shattered the four year oldrecord (08:09.80) when they finished with a time of 08.09:80for the 4x200m freestyle gold.

Maharashtra bagged the silver (08:17.09), while ServicesSports Control Board took the bronze with a timing of08:21.35. (More) PTI TAP SHN