The Indian Sportal

The FINA World Championships or World Aquatics Championships are the World Championships for aquatic sports: diving, swimming, open water swimming, synchronized swimming and water polo. They are run by the International Swimming Federation, FINA, and in the pool swimming events are contested in a 50 m, or "long course", pool. Held every 2 years , the recently concluded 2009 edition was hosted in Rome , Italy.

The Indian participation at the Worlds was spearheaded by teen sensation VirDhaval Khade and Sandeep Sejwal. Other Indian participants in the meet included Rehan Poncha , Pooja Raghava , Ashwin Menon , Mandar Divase , Chittaranjan Shubha , Talasha Prabhu , Murugaperumal Mercy , Fariha Zaman , Arjun Jayaprakash , Vandita Dhariyal and Praveen Tokas

Following is a day by day review of India's performance in various categories...

Day 8

Rehan Poncha bettered his own national record by more than 2 seconds in Men's 400m Individual Medley, he created record in 2007 of 4:33.59sec.

Men's 400m Individual Medley
42 Rehan Poncha IND 4:31.34sec +21.30 secs (new National record)

Women's 400m Individual Medley
44 Pooja Raghava Alva IND 5:28.37sec +53.75 secs

Men's 4x 100m Medley Relay
30 India 3:48.85sec +19.37 secs
Ashwin Menon 1:00.83sec
Sandeep Sejwal 1:02.28sec
Rehan Poncha 55.52sec
Virdhawal Khade 50.22sec

Day 7

Mandar Divase bettered his own national record by almost 5 seconds, previous record of 16:17.07sec which he made in last year's Senior National Swimming Championships.

Men's 1500m Freestyle
32 Mandar Divase IND 16:12.28 mins +1:17.74 mins (new National record)

Women's 50m Freestyle
97 Chittaranjan Shubha IND 28.04 secs +03.80 secs
110 Talasha Prabhu IND 28.53 secs +04.29 secs

Women's 50m Breaststroke
93 Murugaperumal Mercy Venpa IND 40.67 secs +10.43 secs

Women's 4x 100m Medley Relay
33 India 4:53.02 mins +1:09.81 mins
Fariha Zaman 1:11.89 mins
Murugaperumal Mercy Venpa 1:28.78 mins
Pooja Raghava Alva 1:08.24 mins
Chittaranjan Shubha 1:04.11 mins

Day 6

Today Vir needed to participate in 3 events and that reflected in his performance.

Men's 50m Freestyle
44 Virdhawal Khade IND 22.79 secs +01.42 secs
111 Arjun Jayaprakash IND 24.37 secs +03.00 secs

Men's 100m Butterfly
85 Virdhawal Khade IND 55.28 secs +04.72 secs
86 Rehan Poncha IND 55.29 secs +04.73 secs

Women's 50m Butterfly
74 Chittaranjan Shubha IND 29.48 secs +04.04 secs
96 Vandita Dhariyal IND 30.65 secs +05.21 secs

Men's 4x 200m Freestyle
22 India 8:07.84
Mandar Divase 2:00.23
Virdhawal Khade 2:01.54
Rehan Poncha 2:04.98
Ashwin Menon 2:01.09

Day5

Sandeep Sejwal is on roll at Rome, today he bettered his own another national record in 200m Breaststroke ... He bettered National record by huge margin of 2.02 secs to finished in top 35.
Rehan Poncha is also matching Sandeep, he created national record in 200m Backstroke ... He also bettered his own national record by 1.23 secs.

Men's 200m Breaststroke
32 Sandeep Sejwal IND 2:13.22 mins +04.67 secs (new National record)
59 Agnishwar Jayaprakash IND 2:24.49 mins +15.94 secs

Men's 200m Backstroke
50 Rehan Poncha IND 2:06.92 mins +11.72 secs (new National record)
71 Praveen Tokas IND 2:16.90 mins +21.70 secs

Women's 200m Breaststroke
59 Murugaperumal Mercy Venpa IND 3:00.51 mins +38.83 secs

Women's 100m Freestyle
95 Chittaranjan Shubha IND 1:00.47 mins +07.27 secs
100 Talasha Prabhu IND 1:00.73 mins +07.53 secs

Women's 4x 200m Freestyle
22 India 9:21.70 mins +1:56.56 mins
Pooja Raghava Alva 2:24.10 mins
Chittaranjan Shubha 2:18.52 mins
Vandita Dhariyal 2:19.37 mins
Talasha Prabhu 2:19.71 mins

Day 4

Again somewhat disappointing stuff from Vir ... Today also he was well below his national record of 49.47 secs.
Rehan Poncha better his own national mark by more than 1.5 secs, old mark was 2:08.13 mins in 200m Individual Medley.

Men's 100m Freestyle
59 Virdhawal Khade IND 50.07 secs +02.48 secs
134 Ashwin Menon IND 53.41 secs +05.82 secs

Men's 200m Individual Medley
52 Rehan Poncha IND 2:06.29 mins +09.95 secs (new National record)
62 Agnishwar Jayaprakash IND 2:09.11 mins +12.77 secs

Women's 50m Backstroke
83 Fariha Zaman IND 32.06 secs +04.41 secs

Women's 200m Butterfly
51 Vandita Dhariyal IND 2:25.07 mins +20.93 secs
52 Pooja Raghava Alva IND 2:25.08 mins +20.94 secs

Day 3

Sandeep again broke his own national record in 50m Breaststroke ... His timing was +0.49 sec outside qualification for semi-finals.

Men's 50m Breaststroke
38 Sandeep Sejwal IND 27.92 secs +01.00 sec (new National record)
80 Agnishwar Jayaprakash IND 29.39 secs +02.47 sec

Men's 200m Butterfly
45 Rehan Poncha IND 2:02.27 mins +07.94 secs

Women's 200m Freestyle
70 Talasha Prabhu IND 2:12.57 16.59 secs

Day 1 and Day 2

Very impressive performance by Sandeep Sejwal, this time he bettered his own national record by almost a second, previous record was 1:02.19 ... He also missed semi-final place by only 1.15 secs in Men's 100m Breaststroke.
Vir finished on 57th position in 204 swimmers in Men's 50m Butterfly ... But his timing was 0.07 secs more than his national record.
In Men's 200m Freestyle, Vir's timing was disappointing as he was way below his own national record, 1:49.86 mins ... Here that timing can gave him top-50 finish.
Also interesting to note performance of 14 yrs old Vandita Dhariyal in Women's 100m Butterfly.

Men's 100m Breaststroke
35 Sandeep Sejwal IND 1:01.20 mins +2.22 secs (new Nationalo record)
83 Agnishwar Jayaprakash IND 1:05.07 mins +6.09 secs

Men's 50m Butterfly
57 Virdhawal Khade IND 24.32 secs +1.42 secs
133 Arjun Jayaprakash IND 26.61 secs +3.71 secs

Women's 100m Butterfly
77 Pooja Raghava Alva IND 1:05.13 mins +8.37 secs
81 Vandita Dhariyal IND 1:05:80 mins +9:04 secs

Men's 400m Freestyle
60 Mandar Divase IND 4:06.18 mins +23.17 secs

Women's 4x 100m Freestyle
26 India 4:12.41 mins +37.67 secs
Chittaranjan Shubha 1:00.68 mins
Murugaperumal Mercy Venpa 1:06.93 mins
Pooja Raghava Alva 1:03.86 mins
Talasha Prabhu 1:00.94 mins

Men's 4x 100m Freestyle
26 India 3:35.24 mins +23.98 secs
Arjun Jayaprakash 55.25 secs
Rehan Poncha 55.71 secs
Virdhawal Khade 50.78 secs
Ashwin Menon 53.50 secs

Men's 200m Freestyle
67 Virdhawal Khade IND 1:52.01 mins +06.71 secs
99 Ashwin Menon IND 1:58.62 mins +13.32 secs

Women's 100m Backstroke
83 Fariha Zaman IND 1:10.12 mins 11.34 secs

Women's 100m Breaststroke
82 Murugaperumal Mercy Venpa IND 1:24.85 +19.19 secs

Men's 100m Backstroke
81 Ashwin Menon IND 1:00.90 secs +07.97 secs
93 Praveen Tokas IND 1:03.74 secs +10.81 secs

Source : http://jaydeep72.blogspot.com/

Swimming