Khushi Dinesh made light of her rustiness to return gold medals in girls’ under-17 200m and 800m freestyle events as Karnataka recorded a bright start in swimming claiming five titles at the Khelo India Youth Games here on Friday.
Sixteen-year-old Khushi comfortably won 200m freestyle with a timing of 2:10.29 ahead of Maharashtra’s Kiara Bangara, who clocked 2:12.16. She claimed the 800m race with 9:26.19, while her closest competitor, Delhi’s Bhavya Sachdeva, managed 9:30.06.
“I did not get my best timing as my training was not proper due to exams. If there was someone to push me, I would have produced even better results,” said Khushi.
Khushi, who won gold medals in National championships and finished 20 in the World junior aquatics event last year, had last competed in the Asian Age Group championships in Bangalore in September.
Shambahv V.R. (boys’ under-17, 200m freestyle, 1:56.66), Nina Venkatesh (girls’ under-17, 50m butterfly, 28.58) and Sunaina Manjunath (girls’ under-21, 50m butterfly, 30.78) were the other gold medallists from Karnataka.
Assam’s Shivangi Sarma, who trains in Delhi, picked up under-21 200m and 800m freestyle gold medals with her personal best performances of 2:07.91 and 9:31.22 respectively.
Kareena Shankta clocked 1:14.66 in girls’ under-17 100m breaststroke race, leading a Maharashtra sweep of the medals. Her time bettered the previous best Indian performance of 1:14.87 by Saloni Dalal (Karnataka) in 2018.
Haryana claimed three of the four Greco Roman gold on Friday.
Maharashtra led the tally with a total of 149 medals, including 41 gold.
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