Sirish dominates pool on opening day

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

LALITPUR: Sirish Gurung dominated the pool at the International Sports Complex during the 17th Open and Age-group National Swimming Championships winning six gold medals today.

Sirish, who stole the limelight during the seventh Pramod Cup Age-group and Open Swimming Championships in June, won three gold medals each in Open and Age-group categories. Sirish won gold in men’s open 200m individual medley, 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 14yrs 100m freestyle, 50m breaststroke and 50m butterfly.

Sirish clocked 2:37.84 to win the Individual Medley gold ahead of Dilip Thapa Magar (2:45.68) and Manish Chitrakar (2:47.59) and timed 2:19.50 for 200m freestyle gold. Miraj Prajapati (2:30.04) and Rudra Katwal (2:32.37) won silver and bronze respectively. Sirish struck 100m butterfly gold in 1:09.91 ahead of Jayant Prakash Gurung (1:14.53) and Gobinda Karki (1:15.25).

The Kendriya Vidyalaya swimmer won the 14yrs 100m freestyle in 1:08.47, getting the better of Shishir Thapa (1:15.03) and Prijesh Sharma (1:18.13) and took 50m breaststroke title in 38.00 seconds. Sajan Chhantyal (40.12) and Sandeep Pradhan (42.60) were restricted to silver and bronze medals respectively. Sirish clocked 32.84 to claim the 50m butterfly gold.

Dilip Thapa Magar also won two Open category gold medals — men’s 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle. The Tribhuvan Army Club swimmer clocked 35.17 for backstroke gold ahead of Jayant (35.27) and Sirish (35.53). Dilip took the 50m freestyle title in 28.06, while Sirish (29.03) and Jayant (29.09) were restricted to silver and bronze medals.

Likewise, Ceila Gurung clocked 1:31.18 to win Open women’s 100m backstroke ahead of Oshin Bharati (1:34.34) and Jitzwelly Maharjan (1:34.87). Ceila also won the 17yrs 50m backstroke in 43.16. The Open women’s 100m freestyle gold went to Jitzwelly, who clocked 1:17.50 to win the title. Oshin (1:19.03) and Ceila (1:24.06) grabbed silver and bronze. Jitzwelly also clinched the 17yrs 50m freestyle title. Sonira Bista clocked 45.77 to claim the women’s Open 50m breaststroke ahead of Avashree Gurung (49.79) and Tsering Dolker Lama (55.81).

Prabesh Adhikari won the men’s Open 100m breaststroke title in 1:19.31. Banin Sensha Shrestha won silver in 1:19.32 and Tika Ram Thapa took home bronze in 1:21.60.

Other winners were Miraj in men’s 17yrs 100m freestyle, Manish Chitrakar in men’s 17yrs 50m butterfly and breaststroke, Oshin in girls’ 12yrs 50m butterfly, Sofia Shah in girls’ 14yrs 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke, Pasang Sherpa in boys’ 12yrs 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle, Swikriti Ghising in girls’ 10yrs 50m backstroke, Shuvam Shrestha in boys’ 10yrs 50m freestyle, Sabbu Bista in girls’ 10yrs 50m breaststroke and Niharika Tuladhar in girls’ 12yrs 50m breaststroke.