Ranchi: Rehan Poncha on Saturday won his fifth gold medal to help Karnataka retain the top position with 18 gold medals on the penultimate day of the 65th Senior National Aquatic Championship.<\/p>\n
Poncha finished on top in the men’s 200 metres individual medley, clocking 02:07:95 and then helped the Karnataka quartet set a national record in the 4×100 metres free style relay with a timing of 03:34:55, bettering their own previous timing of 03:37:63 set in 2009.<\/p>\n
“I was not sure till three weeks ago whether to take part in the competition, but took a last minute decision after consulting my coach. I hope I get a sixth gold tomorrow,” Poncha, who is aiming a berth in the London Olympics, said.<\/p>\n
Poncha’s effort in the 200 metre individual medley was all the more satisfying as he pushed Olympic qualifier Sandeep Sejwal to the second position.<\/p>\n
The Times Of India<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ranchi: Rehan Poncha on Saturday won his fifth gold medal to help Karnataka retain the top position with 18 gold medals on the penultimate day of the 65th Senior National Aquatic Championship. Poncha finished on top in the men’s 200 metres individual medley, clocking 02:07:95 and then helped the Karnataka quartet set a national record […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-the-newspapers"],"yoast_head":"\n