Aryan Nehra qualifies for the Commonwealth Games in 1500m Freestyle

Gujarat’s Aryan Nehra lit up the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex with a record-breaking performance in the men’s 1500m freestyle and also booked his berth for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games on Day 3 of the 79th National Swimming Championships in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

Aryan clocked 15:14.88s to swim 11 seconds faster than the CWG qualification mark which stood at 15:25.48s.

Aryan is now only the third Indian swimmer after Sajan Prakash (200m Butterfly) and Srihari Natraj (50m Backstroke) to achieve the mark.

He led from the start and maintained the pace to better his own Best Indian Performance of 15:20.91, setting a new national benchmark in the event.

Karnataka’s Dharshan S (15:38.00s) and Delhi’s Kushagra Rawat (15:41.66s) settled for silver and bronze, respectively.

In the women’s 100m Freestyle, Karnataka’s Dhinidhi Desinghu swam to another national record with a time of 56.57s, battering her own record of 56.78s set in Bhubaneswar last year.

Assam’s Jahnabi Kashyap (57.64s) and Karnataka’s Rujula S (57.98s) made the podium.

Dhinidhi returned in women’s 400m freestyle but had to settle for a silver this time as Maharashtra’s Aditi Satish Hegde pulled away to take the gold 4:25.31s. Telangana’s Vritti Agarwal (4:25.88s) won the bronze.

It turned out to be a thrilling final, with the top three finishers and Delhi’s Bhavya Sachdeva locking in for a very close race throughout the final. Very narrow margins separated them and it was ultimately Aditi’s strong finish that helped her top the event.

In men's 400m Individual medley, Karnataka’s Shoan Ganguly topped the podium with 4:24.80s on the clock.

Tamil Nadu’s quartet shattered the meet record in men’s 4x100m Medley Relay with a time of 3:44.74s. They battered their own record of 3:45.09s set in Bhubaneswar last year.

Day 3 Results:

Women’s 100m Freestyle: Dhinidhi Desinghu (Karnataka) 56.57s NR, Jahnabi Kashyap (Assam) 57.64s, Rujula S (Karnataka) 57.98.

Men's 400m IM: Shoan Ganguly (Karnataka) 4:24.80s, Advait Page (Madhya Pradesh) 4:26.36, Shivank Vishwanath (Karnataka) 4:35.96s.

Women's 200m Back Stroke: Pratyasa Ray (Odisha) 2:20.22s, Naisha (Karnataka) 2:21.64s, Jiya Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 2:22.26s.

Men's 1500m Freestyle: Aryan Nehra (Gujarat) 15:14.88s NR, Dharshan S (Karnataka) 15:38.00s, Kushagra Rawat (Delhi) 15:41.66s.

Women's 400m Freestyle: Aditi Satish Hegde (Maharashtra) 4:25.31s, Dhinidhi Desinghu (Karnataka) 4:25.76s, Vritti Agarwal (Telangana) 4:25.88s

Men's 4x100m Medley Relay: Tamil Nadu 3:44.74s MR, Railways 3:48.89s, Karnataka 3:48.92s.