National Aquatic Championships: 13-Year-old Dhinidhi Desinghu smashes National record in 100m freestyle

Dhinidhi Desinghu was the star on Day 2 of the 39th Sub Junior and 49th Junior National Aquatic Championships, as she broke the 100m national freestyle record to clinch the gold medal on Thursday, August 17. Sri Charani Tumu grabbed the second place in the race with 1:02.55s and Arianna Jolly of Maharashtra secured the third place with 1:02.89s.

13-year-old Desinghu clocked 57.67s to overcome Maana Patel's record of 59.12s, which was created in 2014. Notably, Dhinidhi Desinghu rewrote the national record in the sub-junior category in the 2021 edition, where she finished 0.25 seconds ahead of the then-national record.

Desinghu clinched five gold medals in the competition. The 13-year-old, who trains under Madhu Kumar in Dolphin Aquatics, also bagged three gold medals in Karnataka Mini Olympics.

The Group 1 and Group 2 races were dominated by Karnataka swimmers, as eight young swimmers from Karnataka finished inside the top three in their respective categories.

In the 100m Freestyle race in Group 1, Karnataka's Rujula topped the charts with 59.67s. Her statemate Shalini R. Dixit finished second with 1:00.43s. Kshama Iyer of Delhi grabbed the third spot with 1:00.59s.

S. Lakshya of Karnataka won the 200m Women's Breaststroke with a timing of 2:40.96s. Lineysha Anilkumar, who is also from Karnataka, grabbed the second spot with 2:41.63s. Gujarat's Venika Vineet Parikh finished third with a timing of 2:43.08s.

In Group Two, Karnataka's Thanya Shadakdhari won the gold medal with a timing of 2:44.21s. Her teammate Mihika Dutta clinched the silver with a timing of 2:44.57s.

Sanitthi Mukherjee of Bengal won the 100m freestyle in Group Three. Shivani Karra defeated Maharashtra's Anushka to win the 200m freestyle.

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Karnataka's Ishaan Mehra smashes 100m Breaststroke national record

Ishaan Mehra from Karnataka rewrote history with a finish of timing of 1:00.64s in the Group Two boys tournament. He bettered the 2022 record of Suhas Pretham, 1:01.29s. Karnataka's Vedanta Madhir grabbed the silver with a timing of 1:01.98s. Arnav Ramdas of Maharashtra clocked 1.04:67s to win the bronze medal.

Tamil Nadu's Abdul Hafeez won the 200m freestyle in Group Three, while Jas Singh won the 100m freestyle. Assam's Jananjoy Jyoti Hazarika, who broke the national record on Day 1, clinched the gold medal for the 50m butterfly on Day 2. Rohan Nitin also continued his good form to clinch the gold medal in the 1500m freestyle event.