Richa Mishra bags two
more gold medals

Young Richa Mishra of Police scooped two more gold medals to take her individual tally to nine as two national records fell by the wayside on the penultimate day of the 55th National Aquatic championship in Calcutta on Thursday.

Kailash Nath of Police also held centrestage at the Subhas Sarovar pool as he improved upon his own national record in the men's 400 metres freestyle, clocking 04:13.31 seconds. He bettered his own national record of 04:14.74 seconds, established in 1999.

The Services team, comprising T A Sujith, Martin Joseph, Rejimon and Shibu Sebastian, created a new national record in the men's 4x100 metres freestyle relay with a timing of 03:42.55 seconds, erasing the Railways' previous record of 03:42.70 seconds.

The 16-year-old Richa, who has set the pool ablaze with her sterling performance, won the women's 400 metres freestyle with a time of 04:40.91 seconds, though the effort was not good enough to break Shikha Tandon's national record of 04:38.04 seconds.

The Police and the Services contingent shared honours claiming three gold medals each, of the nine on offer on the penultimate day of the championship. Karnataka, Bengal and Kerala chipped in with a gold each.