The 18-year-old Kenisha Gupta took it upon herself to keep the Indian banner fluttering in the Uzbekistan Open Swimming Championships in Tashkent on Friday. On a day when none of her team-mates made it to the podium, she completed a hat-trick of gold, winning the 50m Freestyle with a personal best time of 26.61 seconds.
This performance was all the more pleasing not just because she emerged the fastest woman of the meet but also because it came against the host’s Natalya Kritinina, who has dipped under 26 seconds twice in November last, including a stunning 25.14. Riding on a good start and generating pace, Kenisha Gupta won by 0.25 seconds.
It was the fastest swim by an Indian woman in nearly 13 years since Shikha Tandon set the National Record at 26.37 in the Malaysian Open on May 4, 2008. Coming in the wake of the 26.68 in the heats, which equaled her previous best achieved in the SFI All-India Invitational Meet in Bengaluru last month, her winning time is evidence of her steady and consistent progress.
It was the fourth time in five races, including in each of the three Freestyle finals, that Kenisha Gupta came up with her career best performance. She won the 100m in a National Record time of 57.42 seconds and the 200m in 2:06.66. Yet, while her evolution needs to be lauded, it is also a fact that had these times would not have fetched her a top-10 place in the 2018 Asian Games.
In the men’s 50m Freestyle finals, Tanish George Mathew, AS Anand and D Adhithya finished outside the medal bracket, clocking 23.92, 23.98 and 24.07 seconds respectively. The teenaged Tanish George Mathew came up with a personal best of 23.82 in the heats, breaking the 24-second barrier for the first time.
There is one day’s competition left before the Uzbekistan Championships draws to a close. From an Indian point of view, the focus will be on the 50m Backstroke events where Srihari Nataraj in the men’s event and Maana Patel and Suvana C Baskar in the women’s event are competing. The 100m Butterfly events will have Indian interest as well.
