National Games: Swimmer Nataraj powers to fifth gold

Two national records fell by the wayside while star swimmer Srihari Nataraj caught up with 14-year-old sensation Dhinidhi Desinghu in gold medal count from the pool and lifter Jagdish Vishwakarma triumphed by heaving the bar with one leg in the air at the 38th National Games on Sunday.

Services remained at the top of the tally with 33 medals (17 gold, 9 silver, 7 bronze), followed by Karnataka with an identical 33 medals (15 gold, 9 silver, 9 bronze). Maharashtra (13 gold, 23 silver, 15 bronze) and Manipur (11 gold, 9 silver, 5 bronze) are third and fourth respectively.

In Haldwani, Paris Olympian Nataraj led the charge for swimming powerhouse Karnataka with his fifth gold at the Games to equal team-mate Desinghu, who for once finished second after winning five yellow metals.

Delhi shared the spoils with Karnataka with two gold medals each from the swimming pool on the day.

Nataraj clocked 56.26 seconds to win gold in men's 100m backstroke, edging out teammate Akash (56.36) for the gold. Maharashtra's Rishabh secured the bronze with 56.80s.

This was 24-year-old Nataraj's sixth medal, having earlier won four gold -- 200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x100m freestyle relay medley and 4x200m freestyle relay, and a silver in 50m freestyle.

Karnataka dominated the women's 50m butterfly event with Nina claiming the gold in 28.38 seconds while Dhinidhi was second with a time of 28.80s. Maharashtra's Rujuta won the bronze, clocking 29.12s.

This was Dhinidhi's seventh medal of the Games, having earlier won five gold -- 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 4x100m freestyle relay, 50m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay, and one bronze in 4x100m relay medley.

Tamil Nadu's Rohit Benedicton also shared the spotlight by not only winning gold but also setting a meet record in the men's 50m butterfly with a time of 24.39 seconds.

The weightlifting arena in Dehradun saw Maharashtra's Vaishnav Thakur breaking the snatch national record in men's 102kg category but settled for silver as he was beaten in total lift by Services' Jagdish Vishwakarma who completed his clean-and-jerk effort standing on just one leg.

Vaishnav lifted 160kg in the snatch section, surpassing the previous national record of 157kg which was in the name of Jagdish. But a poor clean-and-jerk effort of 175kg meant that Vaishnav finished second in total lift (335kg).

Jagdish, who could only come up with 152kg in snatch, lifted 193kg in clean and jerk for a total of 345kg to win the gold, while Haryana's Harshit Sehrawat (329kg)

took the bronze.

Just like he had done in a competition last year, Jagdish lifted his left leg after his clean-and-jerk effort and stood on just one leg for a fraction of a second. But by then he had completed the lift, meaning that it was a 'good lift'.

"In a competition last year, he had lifted his leg before he completed the clean-and-jerk lift and so it was declared a 'no-lift'. But today, he had already completed his lift when he stood on one leg and by then the judges had recorded it as a 'good lift'," an official at the venue told PTI.

Medals are awarded only for total lift in the National Games.

"We have all grown up watching Jagdish bhai, and breaking his record in front of him is a dream come true. Though he beat me overall, today is special," said Vaishnav.

Jagdish, while acknowledging the loss of his record, praised Vaishnav, stating, "I always tell the youngsters, don't focus on medals, focus on breaking records. Vaishnav did that today, but I am not done yet, this has fired me up even more."

Vanshita Verma of Chandigarh won gold in the women's 81kg category with a total lift of 208kg, while Tamil Nadu's Arockiya Alish did the same in women's 87kg event with a total of 221kg.

In the men's 109kg category, Rajasthan's Harcharan Singh dominated the event, lifting 160kg in snatch and 187kg in clean and jerk, to secure the gold medal with a total of 347kg.

At the shooting range in Dehradun, Asian Games bronze-winning shooter Ashi Chouksey of Madhya Pradesh broke the women's 50m rifle 3 positions national record on her way to the gold medal.

The 22-year-old Chouksey, who won a silver in 50m rifle 3 positions and a silver in 10m air rifle team event at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, scored an exceptional 598, breaking the previous record of 594 set by Sift Kaur Samra in 2023.

"I worked very hard for this, and I believe the credit goes to everyone who has supported me including my coach, sponsors, family, and friends," Chouksey said after her win.

"Each one of them has played a role in my victory today. This is a moment of pride for me, especially because there was no one from my sport before, and here I am, achieving this milestone."

Chouksey's precision and consistency across kneeling, prone and standing positions was impressive and her record-breaking feat reinforces her status as one of the country's top rifle shooters.

Punjab and Tamil Nadu were crowned 5×5 basketball champions in men's and women's categories respectively.