KATHMANDU, Sept 1: Manish Chitrakar of HIMS and Oshina Bharati of Lincoln School stole the show claiming five gold medals each as Lincoln defended its title in the Sixth HIMS Inter-school Swimming Championship on Sunday.
On Sunday, Chitrakar added two gold medals to his overnight tally of three golds to top the table in the boys´ section. Bharati secured three gold medals in the women´s section on the closing day. She had earlier won two golds on Saturday.[break]
Chitrakar finished ahead of Samrakshan Thapa of Little Angels´ to claim his first gold of the day clocking 29.38 seconds in the boys´ 50m freestyle of 15-17 years age group at the swimming pool of the host HIMS in Narayantar, Jorpati. He again pipped Thapa to the title in the boys´ 50m backstroke with a timing of 36.19 seconds. Munsan Bhujel of HIMS finished third in both the events.
Likewise, Bharati claimed golds in the girls´ open 100m individual medley as well as in the 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle of 13-14 years age group.
She completed the 100m individual medley in 1 minute 24.81 seconds to finish ahead of her schoolmate Iskra Alikafic (1 minute 30.97 seconds). Clara Fields (1 minute 31.50 seconds) of Lincoln finished third in the event.
In the 50m backstroke, Bharati clocked 40.60 seconds to claim gold, pushing her schoolmate Elisa Gurung (00.41.65s) into second position.
Similarly, Bharati pipped Gurung to the gold medal in the 50m freestyle as well. She clocked 35.59 seconds to finish ahead of Gurung (36.68 seconds) in the event.
Anan Lama of Golden Peak also won two gold medals on Sunday to take his overall tally to four golds. He won the U-10 boys´ 25m breaststroke (21.54 seconds) and boys´ 25m freestyle (17.03 seconds) to claim the double on the closing day.
Likewise, Ayushma Tuladhar of Lincoln secured golds in the U-10 girls´ 25m backstroke and 25m freestyle clocking 24.28 seconds and 20.29 seconds respectively.
Avi Rajkarnikar (42.37 seconds) of Lincoln won gold in the boys´ 50m backstroke of 11-12 years age group. In the same age group of girls´ section, Gwendolyne Fields of Lincoln secured gold in the 50m backstroke with a timing of 45.53 seconds.
Other swimmers to win 50m backstroke golds were Devesh Manandhar (37.09 seconds) of Holy Garden in the boys´ 13-14 years age group and Clara Fields (40.72 seconds) of Lincoln in the girls´ 15-17 years age group.
Likewise, the swimmers who won 50m freestyle golds were Rojan Rai (34.06 seconds) of Dikshant Academy and Swikriti Ghising (38.36 seconds) of LA in the boys´ and girls´ sections of 11-12 years age group respectively.
Likewise, Devesh Manandhar (30.28 seconds) of Holy Garden clinched gold in the boys´ 50m freestyle of 13-14 years age group while Clara Fields won another gold in the girls´ 50m freestyle of 15-17 years age group with a timing of 36.60 seconds.
LA won the boys´ 4x50m relay while HIMS finished second and KISK settled for the third position.
Lincoln finished the tournament with the highest 117 points to become the team champion. This is the fourth time Lincoln has won the title, including the last edition.
Two-time champion LA finished a distant second with 59 points while the host HIMS settled for the third position with 49 points.
According to Yaduram Acharya, communication coordinator of the event, altogether 325 swimmers from 35 schools had competed for 34 golds in the two-day tournament.
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