Kathmandu, September 19

Olympian Sirish Gurung added two national records on the second and final day of the NSA Cup Swimming Championship here at the International Sports Complex pool today.

Gurung, who had set the new mark in 100m freestyle on Monday, shattered the records in 50m free and 50m backstroke events. In the final event of the season-ending championship, Gurung won the 50m free gold in 25.97 seconds breaking Gaurika Singh’s mark of 28.09 seconds set during the 20th National Championship earlier this year. Alexander G Shah of Lincoln came second in 26.29, while Devesh Manandhar of Nepal APF Club was third in 26.72 seconds.

Earlier, Gurung bettered his own mark in 50m back in heats but finished fifth in final. Gurung covered the 50m distance in 31.78 in heats bettering his previous record of 31.98 set during the 21st National Open last year. Lincoln School’s Shah won gold in 32.28, while TAC duo Anubhav Subba (33.60) and Dilip Thapa Magar (35.88) came second and third. Gurung was fifth in 43.72 seconds.

Gurung, however, bagged the 200m freestyle gold in two minutes and 22.91 seconds, beating APF’s Devesh Manandhar (2:24.50) and TAC’s Dipesh Chaudhary (2:33.35). Subba won the 100m butterfly gold with the timing of 1:03.78, while his TAC teammate Suresh Rai (1:16.10) and Louola College’s Anan Lama (1:21.25) came second and third.

APF’s Shuvam Shrestha bagged the 100m breaststroke gold in 1:11.37 finishing ahead of Kiran Karki (1:15.45) and Bedagya Raj Joshi (1:22.04). Shrestha claimed another gold medal in 200m breaststroke as he covered the distance in 2:38.47. Karki and Joshi were second and third respectively.

In women’s section, Tisa Shakya of Lincoln School added three golds and a silver to her overnight tally of three gold medals in open category. Shakya, who broke 100m breaststroke national record on Monday, began with the 200m IM gold with the timing of   two minutes and 49.78 seconds, finishing ahead of Duana Lama (2:54.43) of John Dewey and Sameera Shova Thapa (3:38.57) of Nisarga Batika.

Shakya then added 50m breaststroke event gold in 40.31 seconds beating Sonira Bista (40.40) of TAC and Lama (40.47). Shakya won her third gold of the day in 50m backstroke after she finished first in 38.50 seconds. Anushiya Tandukar of Rajarshi Gurukul came second in 41.98 and Ashara Shakya of KMCS was third in 42.19.

Shakya finished second behind Duana Lama in the 200m breaststroke although both the swimmers went neck-to-neck before the latter reached home two milliseconds ahead to win the gold medal. Lama was first 3:10.28, while Shakya finished runner-up in 3:10.30 and Sonira Bista of TAC was third with the timing of 3:23.44.

A total of 184 swimmers — including 112 men and 72 women — from four clubs and 35 schools of the valley took part in the two-day championship which featured 26 events in open and 33 in age-group categories.