Karnataka's Nina Venkatesh dazzles with record in 50m butterfly

Bhubaneswar, July 19 (IANS) Karnataka's Nina Venkatesh created a new national record in the 50m butterfly for Group I Girls at the ongoing 48th Junior National Aquatic Championships being held at the Biju Patnaik Swimming Pool in the iconic Kalinga Stadium, here.

She clocked 28.27 to improve her own national record of 28.51 she had created last year in Bengaluru. Nina touched ahead of Bengal's Nilabjaa Ghosh (28.85) and Punjab's Jasnoor Kaur (28.97) to win the gold.

Meanwhile, young Dhinidhi continued to shine for Karnataka as she set another national record in the 50m butterfly for Group II Girls. She broke Tanishi Gupta's previous record of 29.45 secs which she clocked in the heats on Tuesday. Dhinidhi impressed in the final with a quick dash, touching the pads on 28.93 to win the gold and also improve the record. Tanishi, also of Karnataka, had to settle with a silver as she timed 29.30 secs.

Maharashtra's Anannya Nayak took home the bronze with a time of 29.98 secs.

In the 200m backstrokes for Boys' Group I, Utkarsh Santhosh Patil of Karnataka bagged gold with a time of 2:06.77 to finish ahead of Gujarat's Devansh Parmar who was almost three seconds slower with a time of 2:09.73 secs and Tamil Nadu's Nithik H finished third with a time of 2:10.66.

The overall defending champions Karnataka saw yet another fine performance by Ridhima Veerendra Kumar in the 200m backstroke for Group I Girls. She beat Goa's Sanjana Prabhugaonkar with a time of 2:24.25 while Sanjana clocked 2:25.90 to settle for silver. Maharashtra's Palak Joshi won bronze with a time of 2:27.15 secs.

With just one more day's action remaining, Karnataka continued to lead the medal tally with a total of 62 medals which includes 29 gold medals, 20 silver and 13 bronze while Maharashtra is second with a total of 32 medals and Telangana has 16 medals.