Chitrakar won the 100m individual medley in the boys´ open category as well as the 50m butterfly and 50m breaststroke in the 15-17 years age group to complete a hat-trick of golds on the first day.
He clocked 1 minute 12.97 seconds in the 100m individual medley held at the swimming pool of the host HIMS in Narayantar, Jorpati. Likewise, he finished the 50m butterfly in 31.29 seconds while he took 36.75 seconds to win the 50m breaststroke.
Oshina Bharati of Lincoln School won the girls´ 50m butterfly in the 13-14 years age category. She clocked 38.22 seconds to finish ahead of her schoolmates Shreetika Singh and Niharika Tuladhar. [break]
Bharati claimed her second gold medal in the girls´ 50m breaststroke with a timing of 46.28 seconds. Tuladhar secured silver while Audrey Buckner settled for bronze.
Ayushma Tuladhar of Lincoln won gold in the 25m butterfly of U-10 girls´ section with a timing of 22.84 seconds.
Anand Lama of Golden Peak claimed two golds, winning the 25m butterfly and 25m breaststroke in the U-10 boys´ section clocking 18.81 seconds and 21.91 seconds respectively.
Shubham Shrestha of KCM also secured a gold double as he won the 50m butterfly (41.62 seconds) and 50m breaststroke (41.82 seconds) in the boys´ 11-12 years age group.
In the girls´ 11-12 years age group, Tenjin Lama of The British School struck gold in the 50m butterfly with a timing of 45.50 seconds.
Likewise, Yogesh Thapa (37.22 seconds) of LA won gold in the 50m breaststroke of boys´ 13-14 years age group, Clara Field (42.56 seconds) of Lincoln School won the 50m butterfly in the girls´ 15-17 years age group and Aasma Tamang (24.59 seconds) of Pathshala clinched gold in the 25m breaststroke of girls´ U-10 years age group.
Other swimmers to win 50m breaststroke golds on the opening day were Gwendoline Field (46.07 seconds) of Lincoln in girls´ 11-12 years age group, Kiran Karki (40.13 seconds) of Baba Boarding School in boys´ 13-14 years age group and Iskra Alikalfic (45.81 seconds) of Lincoln in the girls´ 15-17 years age group.
Lincoln, HIMS and LA secured the top three positions respectively in the girls´ 4x50 meters relay.
Lincoln leads the table with 63 points at the end of the first day of the competition while LA is a distant second with 29 points. HIMS is in the third position with 23 points.
According to Yaduram Acharya, communication coordinator of the event, altogether 325 swimmers from 35 schools are vying for 34 golds in the two-day tournament.
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