Punjab’s Varnika bags swimming gold
Punjab’s Varnika Bashambu clocked 2 minutes and 50.37 seconds to win the girls’ 200m backstroke event in the U-18 age group during the concluding day of the Khelo India Junior Women’s Swimming Series 2024 at the Sector 63 Sports Complex.
Asmita Verma (02.53.54s) and Ananya Chauhan (02.55.75s) claimed second and third position. In the girls’ U-15 age group, Seher Puri (02.57.53s), Anmoldeep Kaur (03.00.98s) and Pearl Kalra (03.06.47s) bagged the top three positions. In the girls’ 100m breaststroke event of U-18 category, Avni Chhabra topped the charts in 01.18.33s, followed by Ekambir Kaur Sandhu (01.29.07s) and Prapti Ghose (01.32.28s).
Anushka Sharma clocked 01.31.63s to win the U-15 gold medal, followed by Shivanshi (01.31.94s) and Sidhi Joshi (01.35.67s). In the girls’ 400m freestyle U-18 category, Avnita Verma (05.16.02s), Shubhnoor Kaur Vaid (05.24.84s) and Bhavika (06.11.98s) bagged medals. In the U-15 age group, Harshita (05.27.43s), Niyati Julka (05.28.28s) and Anushka Sharma (05.44.69s) bagged the top three honours.
Shivani Saigal won the girls’ 200m butterfly event of U-18 age group by clocking 02.59.68s. Vanshika (03.01.71s) claimed second position and Mohini (03.07.51s) finished third. Apurva Sharma (02.54.86s), Pranjal (03.12.88s) and Harshika Julka (03.17.72s) won top three positions in the U-15 event.
Arshpreet Kaur won the girls’ 100m freestyle U-18 event by clocking 01.04.51s. Shubhnoor Kaur Vaid (01.06.00s) finished second and Vanshika (01.07.54s) finished third. In the U-15 category, Lakshita Singh (01.07.29s), Harshita (01.09.04s) and Isha Panwar (01.12.82s) won medals. The winners of the event (round 1) were awarded with cash prizes totalling Rs 4 lakh.
