Teen swimmer betters his national record

Fourteen-year-old Sirish Gurung bettered his own national record in the men’s 1500m category of the ninth Asian Swimming Championships 2012 held in Dubai on Saturday.

However, Gurung along with other Nepali swimmers, including Olympian Shreya Dhital, Aditi Dhital, Miraj Prajapati all crashed out from heats.

Gurung completed men’s 1500m freestyle race in 19 minutes 05.25 seconds breaking his previous national record of 19 minutes 48.16 seconds set during the 17th National Swimming Championships held in Kathmandu in August.

Gurung had set five national records in his name during the second NSA Cup Open and Age Group Swimming Championship held here in October.

The swimming sensation had broken the national record in 400m freestyle timing 4: 47.38 and 200m backstroke timing 2: 43.10. The previous record was set by Shyam Bahadur Gurung with the timing of 4: 58.25 while Pushpa Raj Shahi had set record in 200m freestyle timing 2: 45.59 during 1999 SAF in Kathmandu.

Similarly, the teenager had also broken Ongden Lama’s national record of 05: 39.66 timing 05: 21.20 in open men’s 400m heats while he made another record timing 02: 29.88 breaking the previous record of 25 years old Lama in open men’s 200m butterfly.

Likewise, he had also set new record in open men’s 200m freestyle timing 02: 17.10 breaking the previous record of Shyam Gurung 2: 17.45. nepalnews.com