Olympian Sajan Prakash (Kerala) and Astha Choudhury (Assam) prevented a clean sweep by Karnataka on the opening day of the swimming events of the 36 th National Games at the Sardar Patel Aquatic complex here on Sunday.
The first day also saw five new games record being rewritten with Astha Choudhury setting two meet records on her way to gold in 100m butterfly event. Sajan made up for his disappointment in 200m freestyle by winning the 100m butterfly. However, the Kerala swimmer was not at his best, failing to break this own meet record in the event.
It was memorable event for national champion Aneesh S.Gowda to beat his hero Sajan Prakash in the 200m freestyle. Aneesh stalked Sajan at the start and then pulled ahead after 100 metres. The Karnataka lad finished strongly to set a new mark as Sajan Prakash faded way. Aneesh clocked 1:51.88s to break Aaron D’Souza’s old mark (1:52.06s) set in 2015.
