Srihari Nataraj and Sajan Prakash break National Games records in Swimming at National Games 2023
The 2023 National Games in Goa is going on from October 25-November 9, 2023. The tournament has seen several records broken in various events like fencing and athletics. Now, swimming has seen athletes from around the country perform exceptionally on the national stage and return with medals. They have also broken national records.
Srihari Nataraj, who hails from Bengaluru in Karnataka, displayed a stellar performance in the 200m freestyle event and broke the previous national record, also set by him, in Panaji on Sunday (October 29). Srihari swam the length of the pool in 1:49.09s, which betters his previous record of 1:49.73s.
Sajan Prakash, who hails from Idukki in Kerala, also set a new meet record in the 100m butterfly event when he swam the length in 53.79s, breaking the previous Games record in the process. He defeated second-placed Mihir Ambre from Maharashtra (54.32s) and third-placed B.
Rohit from Tamil Nadu (55.00s) was involved in a tense match where Rohit started promisingly but was overtaken by a resurgent Sajan.
With both players winning gold for their respective states and further medals won through swimming and other sports, the overall medal tally reflected a record-breaking scenario.
Maharashtra leads the table with 106 medals (45 gold, 30 silver, 31 bronze) and became the first state to cross the 100 medal mark. Harayana is placed second with 45 medals and 2022 leaders Services are at third place with 29 medals.
Karnataka dominates swimming on Day 4
In addition to Srihari Nataraj's gold, Karnataka displayed further dominance in the pool by winning gold in multiple swimming events.
The state won the gold medal in the 4X100m freestyle relay, with a time of 3:26.88s, a new meet record as well. In the women's events, Karnataka's Dhinidhi Designhu clinched goal with a time of 2:07.32s.
Nina Venkatesh, also hailing from Karnataka, broke the Games record in the 100m butterfly stroke event with a time of 1:02.22s. Finally, the women's 4X100m freestyle relay team emulated their male counterparts by sealing gold with a meet record of 3:59.53s.
The wins take Karnataka to fourth place in the medal standings with 20 medals (9 gold, 5 silver and 6 bronze). Sajan's meet-record win for Kerala saw the southern state move to 14th position with 14 medals (3 gold, 8 silver, 3 bronze). Both states lag far behind a ruthless Maharashtra which leads the rest of the states by a mammoth margin.
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the table, Jharkhand, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, and Arunachal Pradesh languish with one bronze medal each.