Kathmandu, July 20

Shirish Gurung broke two national records and won four gold medals on the final day of the 21st Open National and Age-group Swimming Competition here at the International Sports Complex pool today.

The Tribhuvan Army Club swimmer, who had won four gold medals yesterday, began the second and final day with a first-place finish in 200m freestyle with the timing of two minutes and 17 seconds. He then set two national records in 100m and 50m backstroke events taking his career tally of national records to 45.

He completed the 100m in one minute and 12 seconds, bettering his own mark of 1:12.09 set during the seventh National Games last year in Kathmandu.

Gurung then broke the 11-year-old record in 50m back. Gurung came home in 31.98 seconds breaking the previous mark of 32.62 set byc in the 14th National Games in 2007. With this, Gurung became the lone swimmier to hold national records in all backstroke events. He won his fourth gold of the day and eighth overall in the 50m freestyle when he swam the distance in 26.56 seconds.

Gurung had won gold medals in 200m IM, 100m butterfly, 100m freestyle and 200m backstroke events on Tuesday. Gurung has been selected to participate in next month’s Rio Olympic Games along with Gaurika Singh.

In women’s section, Sofia Shah claimed five gold medals to wrap up the tournament with eight gold medals. The Lincoln School swimmer came first in 200m IM (3:00.41), 100m backstroke (1:21.04), 50m backstroke (36.44), 50m freestyle (29.16) and 100m butterfly (1:23.87). She had won the 100m freestyle, 200m free and 50m butterfly events yesterday.

Also, Kiran Karki of TAC won the 200m breaststroke gold medal in 2:48.34 and bagged 100m breaststroke in 1:15.34 to add to his overnight 50m breaststroke title that he won in record time. Sonira Bista of TAC claimed the 100m breaststroke event in 1:31.22 to take her tournament tally to three gold medals. She had won 50m and 200m breaststroke events on Tuesday.

In school section, Lincoln School won the team championship with 58 points, while John Dewy School came second with 38 points and Little Angels’ were third with 34. A total of 275 swimmers, including 200 from 17 schools, took part in the two-day event organised by Nepal Swimming Association.