Sandeep Sejwal warms up for Olympics with national record

Olympic qualifier Sandeep Sejwal of Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) on Wednesday set a national record in the men's 200 metres breast stroke clocking 02:16:37 in the 65th Senior National Aquatic Championship here.

Karanataka's Saurabh Sangvekar also set a national record, winning the 800 metres freestyle event in 08:12:57 minutes, while Mandar A Divase of the Police team won the silver in 08:34:47 and RSPB's Merwyn Chen returned with the bronze medal, clocking 08:38:87.

Sejwal's domination in the 200 metres was such that fellow RSPB teammate Anoop Augustine finished second far behind at 02:26:98 and Karnataka's M Arvind settled for the bronze with 02:30:66 minutes.

Karnataka's Rehan Poncha grabbed the men's 200 metre backstroke with a timing of 2:07:85 while his teammate Rohit R Havaldar clocked 02:08:17 for the silver and RSPB's Praveen Tokas got the bronze at 02:13:38.

RSPB continued to excel in the pool when S P Nair fetched another gold in the 50 metre butterfly stroke clocking 00:26:13, closely followed by Arjun Murlidharan of the Police who got the silver at 00:26:35. Gujarat's Anshul Kothari got the bronze with 00:26:39.

RSPB men set a national record in the 4x100 metres medley relay clocking 03:56:06 while Karnataka's quartet settled for the silver at 04:01:14 and Bengal came in third at 04:27:16.

In the women's 200 metres breaststroke, Tamil Nadu's M Raghavi (02:48:39) and A V Jayaveena (02:51:45) won the gold and bronze medals respectively while Maharastra's Poorva Shetye (02:48:57) won the silver in the event.

In the 50 metres butterfly stroke, Karnataka's Pooja R Alva (00:29:56) and Fariha Zaman (00:30:16) won gold and bronze medals respectively while Goa's Talasha Prabhu secured the silver clocking 00:29:86.

In the women's 4X100 metres medley relay event, Karnataka swimmers set a national record of 04:36:37 to win the gold. The Maharashtra team (04:37:94) and Tamil Nadu (04:58:12) won the silver and bronze medals respectively.