Rehan Poncha continued to rewrite the record books, bettering his own national record in the 200 metres butterflystroke at the 30th Junior National aquatics championship in Delhi on Friday.
Poncha's fine performance was reflected in the overall showing by his state, Karnataka, which grabbed nine more gold medals today.
The 16-year-old swimmer clocked 2 minutes 9.20 seconds to win the race and cap an extraordinary event which saw him win gold medals in all the events he entered in -- four individual, all in record time, and two relays.
Today's timing was more than a second better than the previous national record of 2:10.26 seconds which he set last year.
"I had come here to know where exactly I stood. I was looking at this meet as just a preparatory one but it turned out to be exceptional," said the Karnataka swimmer.
Karnataka swimmers completely dominated in the 50 metres freestyle both in the boys' and girls' sections in the under-14 age group. Bharat Kumar bagged the gold, clocking 26.94 seconds.
The bronze in the same event went to his statemate, B S Karthik. The silver was won by S Satheesh of Tamil Nadu (28.09).
In the girls' 50 metres freestyle, Karnataka had a one-two finish with Tejaswani (30.53) and Steffi Anthony Thomas (30.81) clinching the top honours.
The under-17 boys' section in 50 metres freestyle also saw Karnataka come out trumps, with Aniketh D'Souza winning the gold (25.07 seconds) followed by Samir Das of Bengal (25.54 seconds) and Parikshit Shetty of Maharashtra (25.66 seconds).
Delhi, which has been struggling to keep up with Karnataka and Maharashtra, had something to cheer about today when Sandeep Sejwal emerged the fastest in under-14 boys' 200 metres breaststroke.
The second place was taken by Karnataka's J P Arjun (2:43.82 seconds) while the bronze went to Yashodhan Lonkar (2:44.76 seconds).
Vociferously cheered by the crowd, Delhi swimmers won two bronze medals in under-14 200 metres butterfly girls' event (Meesha Roy, 2:48.83 seconds) and 200 metres breaststroke in the Under-17 boys' (Rohit Kumar,2:41.29). The gold in the two events was clinched by C Shubha of Karnataka (2:39.11) and Gairik Bardhan of Bengal (2:31.95) respectively.
In the long-distance races, which were held in the morning session, Karnataka swimmers ruled the roost, winning the gold in the under-17 boys and girls' 1500 metres freestyle as well as in the 800 metres boys' under-14 freestlye.
Maharashtra won the gold in the 800 metres girls' freestyle.
Meanwhile, in waterpolo, Bengal set up a title clash with Kerala in the boys' section, defeating Maharashtra 11-7 in the semi-finals today. Keral blanked Punjab 10-0 in the other semi-final.
Karnataka made history by making it to the final for the first time ever in the girls'waterpolo. Riding on a brace by R Manaswani and Ekshitha Prasad and one goal by S Nitha, Karnataka edged past Kerala 5-4.
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