19 big records shattered at 35th National Games. Rio Olympics, beware!

1. The 1500m in swimming men’s event saw Sajan Prakash bag the gold medal with a new meet record of 15:55.78s. Prakash was adjudged the best male athlete of the Games for winning an astonishing six gold and three silver medals with four new meet records.

2. Another record sank in the 800m women’s event when Maharashtra’s swimming sensation Akanksha Vohra clocked 9:15.30s to break the meet record by a second. Akanksha, who was not present on closing ceremony, was declared the best female athlete for her feat of five gold medals and a silver.

3. Haryana’s Dharambir stunned everyone by eclipsing the 100m meet record of 10.52sec to win the gold with a record timing of 10.46sec in the men’s sprints final. Returning to the Games after a two-year suspension for doping, Dharambir also clocked the fastest timing in the 200m final to clinch the gold with a new meet mark of 21.12 seconds

Picture credits: www.sportstaronnet.com

4. Renjith Maheswary smashed Arpinder Singh’s record in the triple jump with a new meet mark of 16.66m. The 29-year-old cleared 16.66 metres to better the 16.62 m record set by Arpinder Singh at the 2011 Games. Renjith has previously won bronze medals in the past two National Games.Arpinder (16.41m) bagged the silver, while the bronze went to SSCB’s Rakesh Babu (16.29m).

5. Rajinder Singh, the 25-year-old superseded the National record in the men’s javelin throw with a massive throw of 82.23m. He started off with a new meet record throw of 75.62m and then bettered Anil Kumar Singh’s National record of 80.72m, set in 2008, with his second attempt.SSCB’s Davinder Singh (75.34m) won the silver and Uttar Pradesh’s Vipin Kasana (75.18m) clinched the bronze medal.

6. The men’s 400m event saw another meet record get smashed when SSCB’s Arokia Rajeev finished the race in 46.40sec to beat the previous mark of 46.97sec set by Paramjit Singh back in 1997. Rajiv, clocked a personal best of 45.92 seconds to clinch bronze medal in the 400m event in the recently concluded Incheon Games.Haryana’s Lalit Mathur and West Bengal’s Chandan Bauri came in second and third respectively.Picture credits: www.sports.ndtv.com

7. Women’s pole vault also saw Tamil Nadu’s Surekha Babu touch the unreachable 4m mark for the first time in the history of the Games. Surekha cleared exactly 4m to clinch the gold.Kerala bagged the silver and bronze through Dija Cherian (3.60m) and Sinju Prakash (3.40m).

Picture credits: http://www.sportstaronnet.com/

8. Kerala’s Tintu Luka posted a new Games record en route her victory march in the women’s 800m event as she clocked 2:01.86s to better the 18-year-old mark of 2:03:08s.A protege of the legendary PT Usha and an outright favourite before the 800m race, Tintu lived upto the top billing as she smashed the previous mark created by KC Rosa Kutty way back in 1997.

9. Sandeep Sejwal, representing Madhya Pradesh, breached his own mark to clinch the 200m men’s breastroke gold with a timing of 2:13.53s.Sejwal also showed supremacy as he smashed the meet record, set by him to freeze the clock at 1:02.3sec and clinch the men’s 100m breaststroke gold medal.

10. Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Vikas Thakur (85kg) shattered the Games and the national record in snatch and clean and jerk to win the gold medal. Thakur lifted a total of 339kg (153+186) to create history.

The Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallist’s effort of 153kg in snatch smashed the Games mark of 147 set by Tajinder Singh of Punjab in 2001 in Patiala and also bettered his previous National mark of 152 set in Chandigarh last year.Picture credits: www.divyahimachal.com

11. Lakshmanan (Services) completed a fitting golden double as he won the 10,000m title after clinching the 5,000m gold on the opening day, with a comfortably paced race before stopping the clock at 29:13.50, well within the old mark of 29:39.94.

In the 5000m, Lakshman clocked a personal best of 13:50.05 that was also markedly better than the existing mark of 14:11.99 set by Soji Mathew in 2011.Mohammed Younis (Maharashtra) turned second best at 14:13.56 while Man Singh added a bronze to the Services tally with 14:15.14.

12. Jaisha, set her swansong racing to win the 10,000m gold medal with a record 33:08.55; better than the old record of 34:28.26 set by Kavita Raut in 2011.

The Kerala athlete had won the 5000m title, again with a new meet record, on the opening day. Jaisha clocked 15:31.37, reducing Kavita Raut’s 15:54.26 (2011) to a thing of the history.
Picture credits: sports.ndtv.com

13. Gayathry from Tamil Nadu also clinched the gold as she ran a superbly in the 100m hurdles to remove Anuradha Biswal’s Games record of 13.81s with a new record timing of 13. 66s.

Karnataka’s Meghna Shetty clinched silver (13.89 seconds) and Tamil Nadu’s Deepika Parasuraman took bronze (13.96 seconds).
Picture credits: sportsstaronnet.com

14. Karnataka’s Arvind Mani bettered the meet record by three seconds to clinch the men’s 400m individual medley gold ahead of West Bengal’s Supriyo Mondal and Sanu Debnath with a timing of 4:37.75sec.

15. Jithin C. Thomas sailed past the existing record in high jump clearing a height of 2.16m.
Kerala’s Sreenith Mohan pocketed the silver, also with 2.16, and Punjab’s Jagdeep Singh won the bronze (2.13).

Picture credits: thehindu.com

16. The cycling events concluded with Amrit Singh from Punjab setting a new Games record in the 1km Time Trial Elite men’s race by clocking 1:09:111 seconds to clinch the gold medal. He broke Kulbir Singh’s 13-year-old record.The 24 year old cyclist took to cycling at the age of 12.

Picture credits: thehindu.com

17. In the women’s 3000m steeplechase, Maharashtra distance runner Lalita Babar ruled the roost after clocking a Games record timing of 9:42.63s, which was nearly a minute faster than the previous meet mark of Priyanka Singh Patel of Uttar Pradesh (10:40.81 at Ranchi in 2011).

18. Maharashtra broke their own meet record in the 4x100m women’s medley when the quartet of Monique, Aditi Dhumatkar, Avantika Chavan and Jyotsna Pansare pulled off a timing of 4:04.45s.