Gujarat’s Aryan Nehra left no one in any doubt that he would be on board a flight to Hangzhou for the Asian Games when he confirmed his form by getting the Asian Games qualifying standard for the second time this year, earning himself a Meet Record with a time of 8:01.81 in the men’s 800m final in the National Aquatics Championships in the Swimming Pool at the GMC Balayogi Sports Complex in Hyderabad on Monday.
The 19-year-old Aryan Nehra improved on his previous best time of 8:03.15 clocked in the TYR Pro Series in Westmont in April this year. The Asian Games qualifying mark – the time obtained by the sixth place finisher in the last edition – is 8:03.87. He also drew satisfaction from beating the Meet Record holder Kushagra Rawat and the National Record holder Advait Page in clocking the third best time by an Indian swimmer over the distance.
Maharashtra’s 14-year-old Anannya Nayak and Karnataka’s 15-year-old Hashika Ramachandra broke National Records in the women’s 100m Freestyle and 200m Individual Medley respectively. Anannya Nayak clocked 57.31 seconds to break Kenisha Gupta’s record set in June 2021 by four-hundredths of a second. She sped away from the start and gave the favourite, Shivangi Sarma no chance of catching up.
Hashika Ramachandra, who won the best athlete award in the 2022 National Games in Gujarat with a haul of six gold, was the first athlete to break a National Record on Monday when she won the 200m Medley in 2:21.15, a vast improvement on the 2:26.23 she had clocked in Rajkot in November last year.
Likith Selvaraj Prema (Services) swam the heats in 28.08 seconds, his fastest time of the year, to raised visions of touching home inside the Asian Games qualifying time of 27.91 seconds. However, while he spent the longest time underwater after the start, Vaishnav Hegde held a small lead at the halfway mark. Likith was forced to play catch up before he won the race in 28.32.
The results (finals):
Men
100m Freestyle: 1. Tanish George Mathew (Karnataka) 50.90 seconds; 2. AS Anand (Services) 51.09; 3. Vishal Grewal (Delhi) 51.13.
800m Freestyle: 1. Aryan Nehra (Gujarat) 8:01.81 (New Meet Record. Old: 8:08.32, Kushagra Rawat, Bengaluru, 2021); 2. Kushagra Rawat (Delhi) 8:09.25; 3. Aneesh S Gowda (Karnataka) 8:16.92.
50m Breaststroke: 1. Likith Selvaraj Prema (Services) 28.31 seconds; 2. B Vaishnav Hegde (Services) 28.98; 3. Aaryan S Ganesh (Madhya Pradesh) 29.15.
200m Individual Medley: 1. Siva Sridhar (Karnataka) 2:06.08; 2. Shoan Ganguly (Karnataka) 2:07.71; 3. Rohit Benedictor (Tamil Nadu) 2:08.40.
Women
100m Freestyle: 1. Anannya Nayak (Maharashtra) 57.31 (New National & Meet Records. OLD NR: 57.35, Kenisha Gupta, Rome, 2021; Old MR: 57.73, Shivangi Sarma, Guwahati, 2022); 2. Shivangi Sarma (Railways) 57.99; 3. Dhinidi Desinghu (Karnataka) 58.07
1500m Freestyle: 1. Bhavya Sachdeva (Delhi) 17:51.12; 2. Richa Mishra (Police) 18:04.32; 3. Vritti Aggarwal (Telangana) 18:09.50.
50m Breaststroke: 1. Manavi Varma (Karnatalka) 33.25 (New National & Meet Records. Old NR: 33.62, Chahat Arora, Bangkok, 2022; Old MR: 32.94, Chahat Arora, Guwahati, 2022); 2. AK Lineysha (Karnataka) 33.86; 3. Chahat Arora (Punjab) 33.97.
200m Individual Medley: 1. Hashika Ramachandra (Karnataka) 2:21.15 (New National and Meet Records. Old NR & MR: 2:23.62, Richa Mishra, Jaipur, 2010); 2. Apeksha Fernandes (Maharashtra) 2:27.89; 3. Shrungi Rajesh Banderkar (Goa) 2:27.96.
Mixed
4x100m Freestyle Relay: 1. Karnataka (Aneesh S Gowda, Nina Venkatesh, Shalini R, Tanish George Mathew) 3:42.92; 2. Railways 3:43.02; 3. Maharashtra 3:44.14.
Photo: Courtesy Aryan Nehra Instagram
