Maana Patel rode on a quick first 50m to hold off Serbian Jana Markovic’s challenge and force a deadheat for the first place in the women’s 100 Backstroke in the Belgrade Trophy Swimming Championships in the Serbian capital on Sunday. The 21-year-old’s 1:03.77 broke her own National Record of 1:04.21 set in the Asian Age Group Championships in October 2015.
Teenager Kenisha Gupta came up with an 100m Freestyle National Record time of 57.39 seconds. It was the third successive meet in which she improved her own time, clocking 57.57 in the all-India invitational in Bengaluru in March and 57.42 in the Uzbekistan Open Swimming Championship Tashkent in April.
The gangling Mumbaikar went one better, coming up with a 57.39-second effort in finishing fifth in a race in which Serbian Nina Stanisavljevic raked up an Olympic Selection Time (B cut) of 55.84 seconds. Having swum a relaxed 58.40 in the heats, Kenisha made the most of the pace to notch up a National Record, with a creditable 29.35-second second-half.
On a day when Sajan Prakash notched up another personal best – 53.27 in winning the 100m Butterfly final – and backstroke specialist Srihari Nataraj was only a shade outside his National Record time in claiming the 50m Backstroke title in 25.18 seconds, it was the two women swimmers who held the spotlight.
For, Maana Patel, this performance not only marks her comeback from injuries and uncertainty but also addresses concerns that she had not shown improvement. For Kenisha,
It is not known if the Indian swimmers were aware that FINA had taken off the times clocked in Tashkent from the Olympic qualifications list. FINA has left the times on the individual pages of some athletes, including the dubious times of a couple of Uzbek swimmers who were credited with securing Olympic Qualifying Times (A cut).
Indians’ results (heats times in brackets):
Men
200m Freestyle: 2. Tanish Mathew George 1:52.40 (1:53.01); 6. Shoan Ganguli 1:57.67 (1:57.17).
50 Backstroke: 1. Srihari Nataraj 25.18 seconds (25.37).
100m Butterfly: 1. Sajan Prakash 53.27 seconds (53.47); Tanish Mathew George (56.60). Shoan Ganguli (58.51, 10th in heats).
200m Medley: 4. Shoan Ganguli 2:10.41 (2:09.25)
Women
100m Freestyle: 4. Kenisha Gupta 57.39 seconds (New National Record. Old: 57.42, Tashkent, April 2021) (58.40).
100m Backstroke: 1. Maana Patel 1:03.77 (New National Record. Old: 1:04.21, October 2015) (1:06.68).
