Benedicton Rohit sets the Best Indian time in 100m butterfly

Tamil Nadu’s Benedicton Rohit set a new national record on the opening day of the 78th Senior National Aquatic Championship in Bhubaneshwar on Sunday.

He clocked an impressive 52.57s in the men’s 100m butterfly finals to eclipse the previous record of 52.77s set by Asian Games medalist Virdhawal Khade in 2009.

Rohit, who trains under Dronacharya awardee coach Nihar Ameen in Bangalore, led the finals from the beginning. At the halfway mark, he had built a significant lead from his counterpart Sajan Prakash to finish with in a record time.

Olympian and meet record holder Sajan, representing Police, finished second with a time of 53.51s while RSPB’s Bikram Changmai clocked 54.35s for third place finish.

In men’s 200m freestyle, Karnataka’s Aneesh S Gowda (1:50.85s) pipped Sajan Prakash of Police (1:50.86s) by just 0.01 microsecond to take home the gold. Karnataka’s Shoan Ganguly (1:51.60s) finished third.

In women’s 400m freestyle, Delhi’s Bhavya Sachdeva emerged supreme with a time of 4:26.66s. Maharashtra’s Aditi Hegde (4:29.48s) and Telangana’s Vritti Agarwal (4:30.05s) finished second and third, respectively.

In women’s 100m Butterfly, Odisha’s Shristi Upadhaya and RSPB’s Astha Choudhury shared the gold in a photofinish, both clocking 1:03.50s while Karnataka’s Dhinidhi Desinghu (1:03.52) finished third. Dhinidhi represented India at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Danush Suresh claimed second gold for Tamil Nadu, winning the men’s 200m Breaststroke in 2:19.17s. Karnataka’s Manikanta L (2:20.56) and SSCB’s Rana Pratap (2:21.08) made the podium.

RSPB’s Harshitha Jayaram (2:37.72s) emerged supreme in women’s 200m breaststroke as Karnataka’s Thanya Shadakshari (2:39.41) and Maharashtra’s Saanvi Deshwal (2:40.24s) settled for silver and bronze, respectively.

In the last event of the day - men’s 4x200m relay - Karnataka (Tanish Mathew, Chinthan Shetty, Dharshan, Aneesh Gowda) took home gold with a timing of 7:40.90s. Maharashtra (7:44.98s) and SSCB finished second and third, respectively.

At the end of the first day’s action, Karnataka is leading with 7 medals - 3 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze followed by RSPB (4 medals) and Tamil Nadu (2 gold).