Arjun Muralidharan creates new meet record

Bangalore, Sep 21 (UNI) Arjun Muralidharan of Police smashed the two-year-old meet record in 100 Meter BackStroke to win the gold, while V Tejesvini of Karnataka equalled seven-year-old meet record in 100 Meter Breaststroke in women section on the opening day of the LIC 60th Senior National Aquatic Championship here today.

Arjun, the SAF Games Gold Medalist, stopped the clock at 1:00.73 secs erasing the old meet record of 1:01:14 secs created by his teammate T K Senthil Kumar. N A Sandeep of Maharashtra finished second with a timing of 1:00.88 secs bettering the old record.

Praveen Tokas of Karnataka has to be satisfied with Bronze. Senthil was pushed to fourth place.

However, this was not the best effort by the 19-year-old swimmer as he had achieved his best timing of 1 min 0.13 secs in the World Swimming Championship held in Montreal last year. He had bagged the SAF gold with a timing of One Minute 0.51 seconds.

Tejasvini impressed with her gold winning effort with a timing of one minute 18.66 seconds, while M S Divya of Andhra Pradesh and Jessica Bole of Karnataka finished won the silver and bronze respectively. Seventeen year old Tejasvini was visibly happy in equalling the 1999 record which stood in the name of Zebz Wadia of Maharashtra.

The SAF Games silver medalist said she would go flat out in a bid to clinch gold in 200 meter Back Stroke also.

Meanwhile, Swimmers from Police led the table bagging three gold, one silver and one bronze to top the table on the opening day.

Swimmers from Maharashtra bagged two gold and one silver, while hosts Karnataka, favourites for team title, bagged one gold, four Silver and Four Bronze, Delhi one gold and one bronze, Assam one gold, Railway one silver and one bronze, Andhra Pradesh one silver and Madhya Pradesh one silver.

Results: Men: 800 M Free Style: Mandar Anand Divse (Pol) I, Rohit R Hawaldar (Kar) II, Aaron D'Souza (Kar) III. T: 08:39:33 secs. 100 M Breast Stroke: Sandeep Sejwal (Del) I, Rohit Kumar (Pol) II, Deepak Kumar Singh (Pol) III. T: 01:07:82 secs. 100 M Back Stroke: Arun Muralidharan (Pol) I, N A Sandeep (Kar) II, Praveen Tokas (Del) III. T 1:00:73 secs NMR (old 1:01:14 Senthil Kumar 2004).

50 M Free Style: Veerdhaval Khade (Mah) I, Aniketh D'Souza (Kar) II, Athul Krishna Raj (Rly) III. T: 24:12 secs.

Women: 800 M Free Style: Charu Mishra (Pol) I, Pooja R Alva (Kar) II, M Kshipra (Kar) III T: 09:46:89 secs. 100 M Breast Stroke: V Tejasvini (Kar) I, M S Divya (AP) II, Jessica Bole (Kar) III. T: 01:18:66 secs.(Equals OR of Zebz Wadia of Maharashtra-1999) 100 M Back Stroke: Fariha Zaman (Assam) I, Sumi Cyriac (Rly) II, Meghana Gupta (Kar) T: 01:09:87 secs. 50 M Free Style: Arpana Magdum (Mah) I, Lekha Kamat (Mah) II, C Shubha (MP) III. T: 01:09:87 secs.

UNI