National Aquatics: Maana’s star continues to rise

Maana Patel of Gujarat broke her own National Record set in 2014 in the Women’s 50m Backstroke, with a timing of 30.25 seconds.

15-year-old Maana Patel holds national records in the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke.

Day 5 of the 69th Senior National Aquatic Championships in Rajkot saw rising star Maana Patel steal the show again.

Maana Patel of Gujarat broke her own National Record set in 2014 in the Women’s 50m Backstroke, with a timing of 30.25 seconds. She was followed by Jyotsna Pansare (Silver) and Avantika Chavan (Bronze) from Maharashtra.

Railways’ Aaron D’Souza won the Gold in Men’s 100m Freestyle, clocking 51.21 seconds, followed by Olympian Virdhawal Khade (Silver) from Maharashtra and Neil Contractor (Bronze) from Gujarat.

Maharashtra won the Gold in mixed 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay, an event introduced for the first time in Senior National’s, Gujarat bagged the Silver and Kerala the bronze.

Railway’s Sandeep Sejwal struck Gold in the Men’s 100m Breast Stroke, with a timing of 1:02.67 followed by Puneet Rana (Silver) from Police and Anoop Augustine (Bronze) from Railways.

Karnataka’s Malavika V bagged top spot in the women’s 800m freestyle followed by Monique Gandhi (Silver) and Rayna Saldanha (Bronze) from Maharashtra.

Jayaveena AV of Tamil Nadu set a new National Record in Women’s 100m Breast Stroke with a timing of 1:16.25. She was followed by Saloni Dalal (Silver) from Karnataka and Chahat Arora (Bronze) from Chandigarh.

Railways lead the medal tally with total 14 Gold Medals, followed by Karnataka with 9 and Maharashtra with 8.