National Aquatic Championships: Jananjoy rewrites national record in 100m butterfly

Assam's Jananjoy J Hazarika headlined the opening day of the 39th Sub Junior and 49th Junior National Aquatic Championships, as he broke the national record in the 100m butterfly category.

In the tournament, which features some of the top swimmers from all over India, Jananjoy's numbers in the prelims Heat were well ahead of other swimmers at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar. The previous national record was created by Mihir Ambre of Maharashtra. He had clocked 55.65 seconds in 2017.

In the final of the tournament, Jananjoy finished well ahead of the second-placed Kartikeyan Nair of Karnataka. The Assam swimmer clocked 55.99 to clinch the gold medal. Kartikeyan Nair grabbed silver with a finish of 56.66. Parambrata Biswas of Bengal clinched the bronze medal with a timing of 57.63.

Notably, the Assam teenager Jananjoy clocked 55.58 in the recently concluded 76th Senior National Aquatic Championships 2023.

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Vidith Shankar betters his own national record in the 50m Breaststroke

Vidith Shankar of Karnataka was the second swimmer to crash the National record in National Aquatic Championships on Wednesday. The Indian swimmer clocked 29.47 in the preliminary round of the 50m breaststroke. He went past Haryana's Vansh Pannu's 2022 record of 29.59.

In the final, Vidith bettered his own numbers by finishing at 29.40 seconds to clinch the gold medal in the National Aquatic Championships. Jharkhand's Rana Pratap clinched the silver medal with a timing of 29.75. Kerala's Kevin Jinu finished third with a timing of 30.37.

Karnataka swimmers dominated other categories as Jas Singh and Ishaan Mehra won their respective groups. Jas Singh, who clocked 2:22:24s, clinched the gold medal in 200m freestyle. Ishaan Mehra topped the charts of 100m butterfly with 59.14s.

In the 100m backstroke, Krishiv Doshi grabbed the top spot. The Madhya Pradesh swimmer clocked 1:13:34s. Vihaan of Goa finished with 1:14:50 to grab the second spot.

Yuvraj Singh of Delhi won the gold medal in the 400m Freestyle. Karnataka's Prithviraj Menon and Akshai Thakuria finished second and third, respectively.