National aquatic championships: Ridhima bests Maana again
The Hindu
Kushagra sets 1,500m National record
Karnataka’s Ridhima Veerendra Kumar provided another glimpse of her growing status as one of the country’s best by sprinting to her second backstroke gold at the 74th senior National aquatic championships at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre on Thursday.
The 14-year-old relegated Maana Patel to second spot for the second successive race (after 100m backstroke on day one) by clocking 29.94s over 50m, and missed rewriting Maana’s National record by an agonising five-hundredth of a second.
The day’s lone National record was set by Kushagra Rawat, who added the 1,500m gold to the 400m and 800m titles he had won earlier, also in record times. The Delhi swimmer’s timing of 15:38.13 was over three seconds faster than his own previous best mark set in 2019.