Sirish reigns supreme in pool

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

LALITPUR: Sirish Gurung shattered two more national records adding to his previous three in the second NSA Cup Open and Age Group Swimming Championships and ended up claiming 13 gold medals at the Satdobato Swimming Complex today.

The 14-year old from Kendriya Vidhyalaya not only broke men’s 400m freestyle and 200m backstroke – both set by Pushpa Raj Shahi during the eighth SAF Games in 1999 – but also added five more gold adding to the eight he won on the previous two days. Sirish – who had set new national records in 400m Individual Medley (IM), 200m butterfly on Saturday and 200m freestyle on Sunday – won gold medals in all 13 events he participated.

Sirish timed 4:47.38 minutes in 400m freestyle to break the previous best of 4:48.25 and clocked 2:43.10 in 200m surpassing Pushpa Raj’s 2:45.59. Miraj Prajapati of Golden Gate finished 200m backstroke final in 2:44.41 to make Pushpa Raj’s time as the third best. Sirish also won 100m butterfly in 1:08.53 and boys 14yrs 50m backstroke in 37.80 and boys 50m breaststroke in 37.96.

Olympian Shreya Dhital of Lincoln School, meanwhile, bettered her own mark in the 50m butterfly apart from winning three gold medals. She won the girls 17yrs 50m butterfly final in a record time of 34.60 seconds – just 0.15 milli seconds quicker than she set during the 11th Galaxy Open and Age Group Swimming Championships last year.

Shreya later won the open 50m butterfly in 34.63 seconds and 50m freestyle in 32.38 seconds. Shreya had won two gold medals on Sunday. Jayanta Prakash Gurung of Golden Gate and Anjalee Syangbo of The British School claimed two gold medals each today. Anjalee won women’s 50m breaststroke in 44.69 seconds and 14yrs 50m backstroke clocking 45.12.

Jayanta Prakash claimed men’s 50m backstroke timing 34.23 seconds and 17yrs 50m butterfly in 30.41. Dilip Thapa Magar of Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) triumphed in men’s 50m freestyle in 28.44 seconds. Little Angels’ School lifted the team championship title with 122 points ahead of Baba (35) and Golden Gate (25).