Mishra wins two more gold in swimming, equals Millet''s record

Ranchi, Feb 18 (PTI) Richa Misra equalled Nisha Millet''srecord tally of 11 individual gold medals while VirdhawalKhade sunk four NMRs in the swimming event of the 34thNational Games here today.

Having crossed her personal best tally of nine goldyesterday, Richa stood on the podium twice today and, with twomore competitions to go, the Delhi girl remained on course tobreak Millet''s 12-year-old feat.

Nisha had won a total of 14 titles in the ManipurNational Games in 1999, with three coming from relays beside asilver medal.

Richa now has 11 gold, two silver and a bronze medal.

Richa opened her account today in the 400m freestyle whenshe touched the pad at 04:35.36 to finish ahead of Goa''sTalasha Prabhu (04:39.67) and Maharashtra''s Aarti Ghorpade(04:41.64).

She made it 11 in style, by clinching the 200m individualmedley with record timing.

Richa clocked 02:26.90 to better her nine-year old reocrd(02:28.56) as Karnataka''s Pooja Alva (02:31.66) and Aarti(02:36.25) bagged the silver and bronze respectively.

In 50m backstroke, Richa (33.09) settled for bronze asMaharashtra girl Avantika Chavan (32.10) and Aarti (32.89)clinched the gold and silver respectively.

In 200m IM Khade bettered Rehan Poncha''s four-year oldrecord (02:11.78) when the Indian star touched the pad at02:11.74 while Sandeep Sejwal, representing Madhya Pradesh,timed 02:14.74 for the silver, and Karnataka''s rising starGagan A P (02:15.17) bagged the bronze.

The Asian Games bronze medallist bagged his seventh goldin 50m bacstroke with a record timing of 27.52, which betteredhis own old mark of 27.90, achieved in the heats in themorning session.

In total, Khade has seven gold, two silver and twobronze.

Services'' Sunil Kumar (28.00) and Karnataka''s RohitHavaldar (28.17) settled for the silver and bronzerespectively.

Karnataka''s Gagan bagged one gold in 400m freestyle withrecord timing to make it six gold and two bronze for him.

Gagan''s timing of 04:04.01 shattered the four-year oldmark by Khade (4:07.17).

Havaldar bagged the silver with a timing of 04:05.79while Maharashtra''s Mandar Divse (04:08.21) bagged the bronze.

Maharashtra dominated the driving arena with T HariPrasad clinching the 1m spring board with 266.10 points whileJharkhand took the silver and bronze thorugh Y Hemjit Meitei(232.50) and Ch Oushkar Meitei (226.20).

The waterpolo competition, too, entered the business endwith Kerala remaining on course for two gold medals.

Kerala beat Bengal 9-3 to set up a final clash withServices, who got the better of Maharashtra 9-3 in the otherhalf.

The women''s team thrashed Karnataka 10-0 to book a finaldate with Delhi, who pipped Maharashtra 6-5.