Sajan Prakash kept his date with records as he blitzed his way to two new marks on the opening day of the Glenmark 72nd National senior swimming championship at the Dr. B. R. Ambedkar International Aquatic complex on Wednesday.
Five new records including a best Indian performance was set on the first day of competition. Sajan started his gold rush in style by gunning down the meet record in 200m freestyle in the first final of the day.
Sajan trailed Srihari Nataraj for major part of the event but shifted gears at the turn after the third lap. Sajan caught up the Srihari at midway through the last lap and finished strongly to set a new meet record in 1:50.35s.
Sajan broke Aaron D'Souza's old mark (1:51.38) which was set in 2011.
Sajan returned to the pool after a short break and came up with a commanding performance in the 200m IM to set his second meet record of the day.
He led from the start and faced little competition but still managed to lower the nine-year-old record set by Rehan Poncha. Sajan clocked 2:05.63 to break Rehan's old mark which stood at 2:05.89s.
Sandeep Sejwal set a new record during heats in 50m breast stroke in the morning. But in the final, Sandeep was slower but still won the gold easily.
In the 50m breast stroke final, Karnataka's Saloni Dalal upset A.V.Jayaveena (Tamil Nadu) who had set a new meet record during the heats in the morning.
Jayaveena, who became the first Indian women to come up with a sub-34s performance, was expected to win but she was pipped at the finish by Saloni.
International Shivani Kataria of Haryana led from start to finish but still managed to improve her own record in the 200m freestyle event.
Shivani who finished at least 10 metres ahead of her nearest rival Khusi Dinesh of Karnataka clocked 2:05.86s to sink her own mark (2:05.63) set last year.
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