Four by Four: Sajan Makes It Four, Five Indian Bests Fall and Karnataka Take the Lead on Day 3 of Short Course Nationals

 

Ahmedabad | 27 October 2026

Eleven finals. Five winning times inside the listed Indian short-course bests, and one that matched it to the hundredth. A fourth gold for Sajan Prakash, a double for Vritti Agarwal, a distance double for Kushagra Rawat, and a new leader at the top of the medal table. For two days, Maharashtra led the 1st Short Course Senior National Aquatic Championships on gold medals. On Tuesday, Karnataka took over. Charita Phanindranath won the Women’s 100m Freestyle and anchored the state’s mixed relay to gold, lifting Karnataka to six titles against Maharashtra’s five, and to 22 medals overall. Sajan Prakash, racing for Police, won the Men’s 200m Butterfly for his fourth gold in four finals. Telangana’s Vritti Agarwal won two events, both under the listed Indian bests. Delhi’s Kushagra Rawat added the 800m freestyle to his 1500m title. And the women’s 200m butterfly and 100m individual medley produced the most crowded record watch of the meet: in each, four swimmers finished inside the listed Indian best. A short-course pool is 25 metres long, so races carry twice the turns of a 50m pool. Short-course times are kept separately and cannot be compared with long-course national records.

Sajan Prakash: Four Finals, Four Golds

Sajan won the Men’s 200m Butterfly in 1:54.32, 4.84 seconds clear of Railways’ Bikram Changmai (1:59.16). Karnataka’s Shrivardhan Rajaram Patil took bronze in 2:01.20. It added to the 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 50m butterfly titles Sajan won on Sunday and Monday. The listed Indian best was one this swim did not touch: Sajan’s own 1:52.10 from the 2021 Short Course World Championships in Abu Dhabi stood by 2.22 seconds. For Bikram, it was a second individual medal of the meet, after bronze in the 100m butterfly on Sunday and fourth place, by one-hundredth, in the 50m butterfly on Monday.

Vritti Agarwal: Two Races, Two Golds, Two Marks Gone

Vritti Agarwal opened the evening with the Women’s 800m Freestyle and won it in 9:03.37, 7.55 seconds clear of Karnataka’s Ashmitha Chandra (9:10.92). Karnataka’s Aditi N Mulay, who finished second to Vritti in Sunday’s 1500m, took bronze in 9:16.81. Vritti’s time was 4.83 seconds inside the listed Indian best of 9:08.20, set by Malavika Vishwanath at the 2014 Short Course World Championships in Doha. It was the oldest mark to fall on the day, and the largest improvement on one.

Two events later she won the Women’s 200m Butterfly in 2:15.86, 3.56 seconds inside the listed Indian best of 2:19.42, set by Shakthi Balakrishnan at the Speedo Invitational in Dubai in 2022. With the 1500m freestyle from Sunday, Vritti now has three golds and a silver. She was not alone under it. Bengal’s Sanithi Mukherjee took silver in 2:17.50, two-hundredths ahead of Tamil Nadu’s Roshini Balasubramanian (2:17.52), and Odisha’s Shristi Upadhaya was fourth in 2:19.30. Four swimmers inside the old mark, in the same race. The three met in the 100m butterfly final on Sunday too, finishing second, fourth and third behind Jahnabi Kashyap.

Tanish George Mathew Breaks Through

A day after taking silver behind Sajan in the 50m butterfly, Kerala’s Tanish George Mathew won the Men’s 100m Freestyle in 48.21. That was 0.44 inside Srihari Nataraj’s listed Indian best of 48.65 from the 2021 World Championships, and 1.13 seconds ahead of Maharashtra’s Rishabh Anupam Das (49.34), who had won three golds in the first two days. Delhi’s Vishal Grewal took bronze in 49.70. Mihir Ambre (50.02) and Chinthan S Shetty (50.06) finished fourth and fifth.

Charita Phanindranath Takes Karnataka to the Top

The Women’s 100m Freestyle was a rematch of Monday’s 50m butterfly final, and the result was the same. Charita Phanindranath touched in 56.98, 0.20 ahead of Assam’s Jahnabi Kashyap (57.18). Her time was 0.12 inside the listed Indian best of 57.10, which belongs to the swimmer who took bronze: Railways’ Shivangi Sarma (58.30) set it at the Speedo Invitational in Dubai last December. Charita then swam the opening leg of Karnataka’s Mixed 4x50m Freestyle Relay. With Shrivardhan Rajaram Patil, Tisya Sonar and Chinthan S Shetty, the team won in 1:39.88, 0.63 ahead of Maharashtra (1:40.51), with Railways third in 1:41.08. There is no listed Indian best for the event, so the Karnataka time may become its first benchmark. Charita now has three golds in two days.

Vishal Grewal Wins the Sprint Breaststroke

Delhi’s Vishal Grewal followed his 100m freestyle bronze with gold in the Men’s 50m Breaststroke, winning in 28.19 by six-hundredths from Railways’ Shwejal Shailesh Mankar (28.25). Maharashtra’s Yash Anil Gulhane, silver in Monday’s 100m, took bronze in 28.48. Karnataka’s Surya Jhoyappa O R, who won the 200m and 100m, missed a breaststroke sweep in fourth (28.55). Ritik Sharma and Kunj Harshul Desai tied for eighth in 29.42. The listed Indian best, Likith Selvaraj Prema’s 27.68 from the 2022 World Cup in Indianapolis, held by 0.51.

Mittapalli Rithvika Matches the Mark

Telangana’s Mittapalli Rithvika won the Women’s 50m Breaststroke in 32.91, 0.75 clear of the field, and exactly equal to the listed Indian best Chahat Arora swam in the heats of the 2022 World Championships in Melbourne. Andhra Pradesh’s Vasupalli Naga Greeshmini took silver in 33.66, four-hundredths ahead of Karnataka’s S Lakshya (33.70), Monday’s 100m breaststroke champion.

Vinayak Vijay’s First Gold

After finishing second to Rishabh Anupam Das in both backstroke finals, SSCB’s Vinayak Vijay won the Men’s 100m Individual Medley in 54.82, 1.59 seconds ahead of Tamil Nadu’s Siva Sridhar (56.41). Telangana’s Suhas Preetham Mylari, bronze in Monday’s 50m backstroke, took bronze again in 57.89, 0.18 ahead of Surya Jhoyappa O R. The listed Indian best is the 54.50 Sajan Prakash swam at the World Cup in Tashkent this month; Vinayak finished 0.32 outside it.

Four Women Under the Medley Mark

The tightest final of the day was the Women’s 100m Individual Medley, where 0.36 seconds covered the top four. Vasupalli Naga Greeshmini, silver medallist in the 50m breaststroke earlier in the evening, won Andhra Pradesh’s first gold of the championships in 1:07.20. Railways’ Rujuta Prasad Rajadnya took silver in 1:07.46, Tamil Nadu’s Shreenithi Natesan bronze in 1:07.52, and Karnataka’s Hitaishi V was fourth in 1:07.56. All four went under Jyotsna Pansare’s listed Indian best of 1:07.95, which had stood since the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat. For Rujuta, it was a fourth individual medal of the meet.

Kushagra Rawat Completes the Distance Double

The Men’s 800m Freestyle podium was the same as Monday’s 1500m, in the same order. Delhi’s Kushagra Rawat won in 7:59.67, the only swimmer under eight minutes, ahead of Karnataka’s Sharan S (8:06.54) and SSCB’s Atharvraj Sayaji Patil (8:08.50). Kushagra finished 1.28 seconds outside the listed Indian best, his own 7:58.39 from the heats of the 2021 World Championships. Karnataka placed three of the top five, with Renukacharya Hodmani fourth and Aniketh Bhat Arnady fifth, in a final of 26 swimmers.

Record Watch: Five Under, One Level

Five of the eleven Day 3 winners went faster than the listed Indian short-course best in their event, and Mittapalli Rithvika equalled one. Across three days, 18 of the 30 champions have now gone under the listed marks. As on the first two days, the SFI result sheet carries no record annotations, and ratification of the first short-course national marks is awaited.

Event	Winner	Time	Previous listed Indian best	Faster by
Women 800m Freestyle	Vritti Agarwal (TEL)	9:03.37	9:08.20 — Malavika Vishwanath, 2014	4.83
Women 200m Butterfly	Vritti Agarwal (TEL)	2:15.86	2:19.42 — Shakthi Balakrishnan, 2022	3.56
Women 100m IM	Vasupalli Naga Greeshmini (AP)	1:07.20	1:07.95 — Jyotsna Pansare, 2017	0.75
Men 100m Freestyle	Tanish George Mathew (KER)	48.21	48.65 — Srihari Nataraj, 2021	0.44
Women 100m Freestyle	Charita Phanindranath (KAR)	56.98	57.10 — Shivangi Sarma, 2025	0.12
Women 50m Breaststroke	Mittapalli Rithvika (TEL)	32.91	32.91 — Chahat Arora, 2022	Equalled

Six more swimmers also went under the old marks without winning: Sanithi Mukherjee (2:17.50), Roshini Balasubramanian (2:17.52) and Shristi Upadhaya (2:19.30) in the 200m butterfly, and Rujuta Prasad Rajadnya (1:07.46), Shreenithi Natesan (1:07.52) and Hitaishi V (1:07.56) in the 100m individual medley.

Day 3 Results at a Glance

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Women 800m Freestyle	Vritti Agarwal (TEL) 9:03.37	Ashmitha Chandra (KAR) 9:10.92	Aditi N Mulay (KAR) 9:16.81
Men 200m Butterfly	Sajan Prakash (Police) 1:54.32	Bikram Changmai (RSPB) 1:59.16	Shrivardhan Rajaram Patil (KAR) 2:01.20
Women 200m Butterfly	Vritti Agarwal (TEL) 2:15.86	Sanithi Mukherjee (BEN) 2:17.50	Roshini Balasubramanian (TN) 2:17.52
Men 100m Freestyle	Tanish George Mathew (KER) 48.21	Rishabh Anupam Das (MAH) 49.34	Vishal Grewal (DEL) 49.70
Women 100m Freestyle	Charita Phanindranath (KAR) 56.98	Jahnabi Kashyap (ASM) 57.18	Shivangi Sarma (RSPB) 58.30
Men 50m Breaststroke	Vishal Grewal (DEL) 28.19	Shwejal Shailesh Mankar (RSPB) 28.25	Yash Anil Gulhane (MAH) 28.48
Women 50m Breaststroke	Mittapalli Rithvika (TEL) 32.91	Vasupalli Naga Greeshmini (AP) 33.66	S Lakshya (KAR) 33.70
Men 100m IM	Vinayak Vijay (SSCB) 54.82	Siva Sridhar (TN) 56.41	Suhas Preetham Mylari (TEL) 57.89
Women 100m IM	Vasupalli Naga Greeshmini (AP) 1:07.20	Rujuta Prasad Rajadnya (RSPB) 1:07.46	Shreenithi Natesan (TN) 1:07.52
Mixed 4x50m Freestyle Relay	Karnataka 1:39.88	Maharashtra 1:40.51	RSPB 1:41.08
Men 800m Freestyle	Kushagra Rawat (DEL) 7:59.67	Sharan S (KAR) 8:06.54	Atharvraj Sayaji Patil (SSCB) 8:08.50

Medal Tally After Day 3

Team	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Karnataka	6	7	9	22
Maharashtra	5	6	2	13
Telangana	4	1	3	8
Police	4	0	0	4
Delhi	3	0	2	5
Assam	2	2	0	4
Odisha	2	0	1	3
SSCB	1	3	2	6
Andhra Pradesh	1	1	1	3
Kerala	1	1	0	2
Madhya Pradesh	1	0	0	1
RSPB	0	5	5	10
Tamil Nadu	0	2	3	5
Bengal	0	2	1	3
Gujarat	0	0	1	1

Based on the 30 events in the official Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 result sheets, including Event 22 (Women’s 800m Freestyle), issued separately. Events 31 and 32 do not appear on the Day 3 sheet.

Looking Ahead

One day of racing remains before the championships close on 28 October. Karnataka lead Maharashtra by a single gold, Sajan Prakash has won every final he has entered, and 18 champions have gone under the listed Indian bests. The first short-course national record book will be written over four days in Ahmedabad; on this evidence, the final page is still open. — SwimmingDrive Bureau