Shaila finishes with eight gold medals

Lalitpur, October 6:

Shaila Rana won eight gold medals and two players set new national records in the 14th National Swimming Championship here today.

Western Development Region won the team championship with 107 points, ahead of Central Region (75) and Tribhuvan Army Club (69).

Shaila, who won three golds medals on the opening day, added four more title on Friday and ended her campaign with a gold on the final day. Shaila claimed her last gold medal in the 50 metre Backstroke completing the distance in 41.67 seconds.

On Friday, Shaila won gold medals in 200 metre Backstroke, 200 metre Individual Medley, 100 metre Butterfly and 200 metre Freestyle. She also broke her own previous national record in 200 metre Backstroke. On the opening day, Shaila had won the 400 metre Freestyle, 200 metre Butterfly and 100 metre Backstroke. She could not, however, excel Nayana Shakya in the 100 metre Freestyle and had to be content with silver.

On Saturday, Chandra Singh Mahato broke his own previous national record in 50 metre Butterfly. Mahato, who also clinched the 100 metre Butterfly and 200 metre Butterfly events earlier, set the new record of 28.58 seconds shattering his own mark of 28.64.

Prashidha Jung Shah, who claimed the 100 metre Freestyle gold earlier, added the 50 metre Freestyle gold on Friday. He completed the distance in 26.68 seconds. Other men’s section gold medallists of the day were Santa Kumar Rai (50 metre Breaststroke), Puspa Raj Shahi (50 metre Backstroke), Tribhuvan Army Club (4X100m relay).

In women’s section, Nayana Shakya won two gold medals in 50 metre freestyle and 50 metre Butterfly and Sudha Shrestha bagged the 50 metre Breaststroke gold. In all, 72 male and 48 female swimmers participated in 30-event tournament organised by the Nepal Swimming Association.