Half the Pool, Twice the Thrill: Sajan Doubles Up, Rishabh Rockets as India’s First Short Course Nationals Open

Ahmedabad | 25 October 2026

Ten finals. Seven winning times faster than any Indian has ever been listed as swimming over the short course. Two doubles, a one-two, and a 1500m that may have just written its own benchmark. For decades, Indian swimming has measured itself almost entirely in 50-metre pools. On Sunday, the Swimming Federation of India finally staged a senior national championship over 25 metres — and the opening night of the 1st Short Course Senior National Aquatic Championships suggested the format had been waiting for its swimmers. Two-time Olympian Sajan Prakash, 33 and racing for Police, opened the meet with a double. Maharashtra’s Rishabh Anupam Das, a month removed from his Asian Games national record, produced the swim of the night in the 100m backstroke. And Assam’s Jahnabi Kashyap matched Sajan with two golds of her own. Maharashtra won three titles; Karnataka collected the most medals, eight. A short-course pool is 25 metres long, so every race carries twice the turns and underwater phases of a long-course swim. Times are faster and are kept separately — they cannot be compared with the national records swum at the 79th Senior Nationals in June.

Sajan Prakash: Two Races, Two Golds, One Old Mark Gone

The meet’s first final belonged to its most decorated swimmer. Sajan Prakash won the Men’s 200m Freestyle in 1:47.15, almost two seconds clear of Karnataka’s Chinthan S Shetty (1:49.12), with Delhi’s Vishal Grewal (1:49.65) taking bronze. Delhi’s Kushagra Rawat — whose 3:49.04 from the 2021 Short Course World Championships remains the listed Indian best in the 400m freestyle — finished fourth in 1:50.66. Sajan’s time was 0.54 seconds outside the 1:46.61 he swam in Abu Dhabi in 2021. He went one better in the Men’s 100m Butterfly. Sajan touched in 51.31, 0.30 seconds inside the listed Indian short-course best he set himself at those same 2021 World Championships. Maharashtra’s Mihir Ambre (52.62) held off Railways’ Bikram Changmai (52.74) for silver by just 0.12. The swim confirms a short-course run of form: at the World Cup in Tashkent earlier this month, Sajan lowered the listed Indian marks in the 100m IM (54.50) and 400m IM (4:25.89).

Rishabh Das Rockets Under Srihari’s Mark

The most emphatic swim of the night came in the Men’s 100m Backstroke. Maharashtra’s Rishabh Anupam Das stopped the clock at 51.63 — 1.86 seconds ahead of SSCB’s Vinayak Vijay (53.49) and 1.18 seconds under Srihari Nataraj’s listed Indian best of 52.81 from 2021. Only a month ago, at the Asian Games, Rishabh set the long-course national record in the 200m backstroke at 1:58.77. The bronze was decided by five-hundredths. Tamil Nadu’s Siva Sridhar (55.20) edged Karnataka’s Samarth Gowda B S (55.25), with Tamil Nadu’s Gokulan S fifth in 55.39.

Karnataka’s Breaststroke One-Two — With the Order Reversed

Karnataka took gold and silver in the Men’s 200m Breaststroke. Surya Jhoyappa O R won in 2:13.09 and Manikanta L followed in 2:13.67 — both inside Likith Selvaraj Prema’s listed Indian best of 2:14.76 from the 2019 South Asian Games. In June’s long-course final at the Senior Nationals, Manikanta had won and Surya had taken bronze; over 25 metres, the order flipped. Gujarat’s Kunj Harshul Desai, bronze medallist in June, took bronze again in 2:16.12.

Jahnabi Kashyap’s Golden Double for Assam

Assam’s Jahnabi Kashyap opened her night in the Women’s 200m Freestyle and won it in 2:03.12, 1.56 seconds clear of Telangana’s Vritti Agarwal (2:04.68), with Karnataka’s Tisya Sonar third in 2:06.49. Her time was 0.58 seconds inside Shivani Kataria’s listed Indian best of 2:03.70, set at the 2018 Short Course World Championships in Hangzhou. The Women’s 100m Butterfly then produced the tightest finish of the evening. Jahnabi held off Bengal’s Sanithi Mukherjee by 0.13 — 1:02.15 to 1:02.28 — with Odisha’s Shristi Upadhaya third in 1:03.02 and Tamil Nadu’s Roshini Balasubramanian fourth, just 0.08 behind. Both medallists went under Divya Satija’s listed 1:02.78 from 2019. Sanithi, Shristi and Roshini had also finished third, fourth and fifth in the long-course 200m butterfly final in June — a trio that keeps finding itself in the same water.

Pratyasa Ray Runs Away With the Backstroke

Odisha’s Pratyasa Ray won the Women’s 100m Backstroke in 1:02.21 by 2.72 seconds — the widest margin of any 100m race on the night. Her time edged Maana Patel’s listed Indian best of 1:02.36 from the 2019 South Asian Games. Railways’ Rujuta Prasad Rajadnya (1:04.93) took silver and Karnataka’s Siddhi Gautam Shah (1:06.29) bronze, ahead of teammate Shalini R Dixit (1:06.47).

Maharashtra’s Breaststroke Duel

Four women finished within 1.31 seconds in the Women’s 200m Breaststroke. Maharashtra’s Samaira Mehrotra won in 2:37.24, 0.36 ahead of teammate Yashvi Pradeep Kharat (2:37.60). Karnataka’s S Lakshya took bronze in 2:38.24, just 0.31 ahead of Andhra Pradesh’s Vasupalli Naga Greeshmini (2:38.55). The top two both went under Apeksha Fernandes’s listed Indian best of 2:38.05.

Vritti Agarwal Goes the Distance

On the same day as her 200m freestyle silver, Telangana’s Vritti Agarwal won the Women’s 1500m Freestyle in 17:13.84. Karnataka’s Aditi N Mulay was second in 17:26.48 and Meenakshi Menon third in 18:15.51, with Karnataka placing four swimmers in the top ten. Vritti broke a 15-year-old long-course national record in the 800m freestyle in June. With no Indian short-course 1500m best on the public record, her swim may stand as the event’s first benchmark.

Maharashtra Close the Night

Maharashtra won the Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay in 3:22.65, 4.36 seconds ahead of SSCB (3:27.01). The quartet of Rishabh Anupam Das, Premkumar Manohar Patil, Mihir Ambre and Archit Sameer Morvekar gave Rishabh his second gold of the day and Mihir a gold to go with his butterfly silver. Railways took bronze in 3:28.35, with Karnataka fourth in 3:31.11. The listed Indian short-course best — 3:20.50 by the national team at the 2019 South Asian Games — survived.

Record Watch: Seven Under the Listed Indian Bests

India has never had a short-course nationals, so most of its short-course best marks were set abroad — at the 2019 South Asian Games, or at the 2018 and 2021 World Championships. Seven Day 1 winners went faster. The SFI result sheet carries no record annotations; ratification of the first short-course national marks is awaited.

Event	Winner	Time	Previous listed Indian best	Faster by
Men 100m Backstroke	Rishabh Anupam Das (MAH)	51.63	52.81 — Srihari Nataraj, 2021	1.18
Men 200m Breaststroke	Surya Jhoyappa O R (KAR)	2:13.09	2:14.76 — Likith Selvaraj Prema, 2019	1.67
Men 100m Butterfly	Sajan Prakash (Police)	51.31	51.61 — Sajan Prakash, 2021	0.30
Women 200m Breaststroke	Samaira Mehrotra (MAH)	2:37.24	2:38.05 — Apeksha Fernandes, 2019	0.81
Women 100m Butterfly	Jahnabi Kashyap (ASM)	1:02.15	1:02.78 — Divya Satija, 2019	0.63
Women 200m Freestyle	Jahnabi Kashyap (ASM)	2:03.12	2:03.70 — Shivani Kataria, 2018	0.58
Women 100m Backstroke	Pratyasa Ray (ODI)	1:02.21	1:02.36 — Maana Patel, 2019	0.15

Three runners-up also went under the old marks: Manikanta L (2:13.67), Yashvi Pradeep Kharat (2:37.60) and Sanithi Mukherjee (1:02.28).

Day 1 Results at a Glance

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men 200m Freestyle	Sajan Prakash (Police) 1:47.15	Chinthan S Shetty (KAR) 1:49.12	Vishal Grewal (DEL) 1:49.65
Women 200m Freestyle	Jahnabi Kashyap (ASM) 2:03.12	Vritti Agarwal (TEL) 2:04.68	Tisya Sonar (KAR) 2:06.49
Men 200m Breaststroke	Surya Jhoyappa O R (KAR) 2:13.09	Manikanta L (KAR) 2:13.67	Kunj Harshul Desai (GUJ) 2:16.12
Women 200m Breaststroke	Samaira Mehrotra (MAH) 2:37.24	Yashvi Pradeep Kharat (MAH) 2:37.60	S Lakshya (KAR) 2:38.24
Men 100m Butterfly	Sajan Prakash (Police) 51.31	Mihir Ambre (MAH) 52.62	Bikram Changmai (RSPB) 52.74
Women 100m Butterfly	Jahnabi Kashyap (ASM) 1:02.15	Sanithi Mukherjee (BEN) 1:02.28	Shristi Upadhaya (ODI) 1:03.02
Men 100m Backstroke	Rishabh Anupam Das (MAH) 51.63	Vinayak Vijay (SSCB) 53.49	Siva Sridhar (TN) 55.20
Women 100m Backstroke	Pratyasa Ray (ODI) 1:02.21	Rujuta Prasad Rajadnya (RSPB) 1:04.93	Siddhi Gautam Shah (KAR) 1:06.29
Men 4x100m Freestyle Relay	Maharashtra 3:22.65	SSCB 3:27.01	RSPB 3:28.35
Women 1500m Freestyle	Vritti Agarwal (TEL) 17:13.84	Aditi N Mulay (KAR) 17:26.48	Meenakshi Menon (KAR) 18:15.51

Medal Tally After Day 1

Team	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Maharashtra	3	2	0	5
Police	2	0	0	2
Assam	2	0	0	2
Karnataka	1	3	4	8
Telangana	1	1	0	2
Odisha	1	0	1	2
SSCB	0	2	0	2
RSPB	0	1	2	3
Bengal	0	1	0	1
Delhi	0	0	1	1
Gujarat	0	0	1	1
Tamil Nadu	0	0	1	1

Based on the ten events in the official Day 1 result sheet.

Looking Ahead

Three days of racing remain, with the championships running until 28 October. On Day 1 alone, seven listed Indian short-course bests fell to the clock. India has waited a long time for a short-course nationals; on this evidence, the record books have been waiting too. — SwimmingDrive Bureau