Gynmasts, Khade propels Maharashtra to top in medal tally

In swimming, Khade won the 100m backstroke with a timingof 59.89s, beating 1:00.60s record set by Rohit Havaldar inKarnataka''s Havaldar (59.97s) and Ashwin Menon (1:00.23s)claimed the silver and bronze respectively.

Khade did an encore in the 50m butterfly when he improvedhis heat record timing of 25.90s by touching the pad at 25.16sfor his fifth gold in total.

Gujarat''s Anshul Kothari (26.62s) and Haryana''s PulkitKumar (26.69s) won the silver and bronze respectively.

Continuing his fine run, Karnakta''s Gagan A P clinchedthe 800m freestyle with a record timing of 8:27.22s andbettered Havaldar''s four-year-old record of 8:35.39s.

Mahrashtra''s Mandar Divse (8:38.38s) and Merwyn Chan ofDelhi (8:44.96s) won the silver and bronze respectively.

In the women''s section Richa Mishra clinched two gold inthe pool -- on of them in record timing -- to make it nine intotal.

The Delhi girl opened her day''s account with a gold in1,500m freestyle clocking 18:14.79s. In the effort shebettered her four-year-old record (18:14.97s) even asKarnataka''s Sushaka Pratap (18:43.01s) and Tamil Nadu''s AnushaMehta (19:24.01s) won the silver and bronze respectively.

In 100m backstroke, Richa clocked 1:09.22s for her ninthgold as Maharashtra''s Aarti Ghorpade (1:09.85) and TamilNadu''s R Sushmitha (1:11.67) won the silver and bronzerespectively.

Richa also bagged a silver in the 50m butterfly byfinishing behind Karnataka''s Pooja Alva (29:87s) with atiming of 29.98s. Talasha Prabhu of Goa (30.14) won thebronze.

Maharashtra also won the diving 3m springboard throughHrutika Shriram who totalled 205.35 points for a new meetrecord.

Hrutika bettered her four-year-old record of 199.50points as state mate Swati Vidap (156.10) won the silver andKarnataka''s Karishma Mohite (155.85) won the bronze. MORE PTITAP SSC