Haldwani, Feb 4: Karnataka’s star swimmers Srihari Nataraj and Dhinidhi Desinghu ended their National Games campaigns with nine gold each as their state picked up a phenomenal 22 yellow metals from the pool at the conclusion of competition here on Tuesday.
Desinghu, the 14-year-old swimming sensation, won the women’s 100m freestyle event with a Games record time of 57.34 seconds – bettering her own earlier mark of 57.87 seconds set in the 2023 Goa edition – while Nataraj took the men’s 100m freestyle title with a time of 50.65 seconds.
Desinghu and Nataraj, both Paris Olympians, later teamed up to help Karnataka win the mixed 4x100m medley gold with a time of 4 minutes and 3.91 seconds to end at the same number of gold medals.
Desinghu, however, pipped her senior state-mate in the total number of medals won. She won 11 medals in the Games, having earlier won seven gold (400m freestyle, mixed 4x100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 4x100m freestyle relay and 50m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay), one silver (50m butterfly) and one bronze – (4x100m relay medley).
The 24-year-old Nataraj ended the campaign with 10 medals, having earlier won seven gold – 50m backstroke, mixed 4x100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x100m freestyle relay medley, 4x200m freestyle relay and 100m backstroke – and a silver – 50m freestyle.
Nataraj and Desinghu are tipped to become the best male and female athletes of the Games. Nataraj had won the accolade in the 2023 edition of the Games in Goa with 8 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze to his kitty.
In the 2022 edition in Gujarat, Nataraj was beaten by another swimmer Sajan Prakash (who won the accolade in 2015 also) for the honour despite winning eight medals, including two gold.
Karnataka’s fourth gold of the day came from Vidith S Shankar who took the top spot in the men’s 100m breaststroke with a time of 1 minute and 3.97 seconds.
Shankar was also part of the Karnataka team that won the mixed 4x100m medley gold, the fourth member being Naisha Shetty.
The lone event Karnataka did not win a gold on Tuesday was the women’s 100m breaststroke in which Kerala’s Harshitha Jayaram took the top spot with a time of 1 minute and 14.34 seconds.
In total, Karnataka won 37 medals (22 gold, 10 silver, 5 bronze) in an overwhelmingly dominant performance from the pool.
Maharashtra was second with 5 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze. (PTI)
