The Swimming Federation of India selection committee met on Friday following the successful completion of the 76th Senior National Aquatic Championships, which was also a qualification meet for the 19th Asian Games, in Hyderabad.
Guwahati hosted the most recent senior national swimming championships. In the men's and women's categories, respectively, Siva Sridhar and Maana Patel were chosen as the best swimmers after winning three individual gold medals apiece
As per a press release from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the 29-year-old Sajan Prakash won eight medals, with five individual gold, two silver and a bronze, to pip Srihari Nataraj who also claimed eight medals in all, with six gold including two in relays.
Srihari Nataraj of Karnataka competed at the Sardar Patel Aquatics Complex in Rajkot and set a new National Games record with a time of 50.41 seconds to add to his collection of gold.
Sajan Prakash, competing at the Sardar Patel Aquatics Complex in Ahemdabad, beat tough competition from Madhya Pradesh's Advait Page in the men's 400-meter freestyle and Karnataka's S Siva in the 200-meter individual medley to increase his personal gold medal total at this edition to five.
Olympian Sajan Prakash, representing Kerala, clocked 1:59.56 in the final to win the gold, beating his own National Games record set at the previous edition in Kerala.
Astha Choudhury clocked 1:03.91 in the 100m Butterfly heats to take the Games record from Richa Mishra, who set it at 1:04.41 in Ranchi in 2011. Incidentally, the Butterfly specialist had clocked 1:03.07 in Guwahati last month to claim the National Record too.
Sajan Prakash emerged the Best Male Athlete of the 2015 National Games in his home state after bagging a phenomenal six gold and three silver medals. Besides him and backstroke specialist Srihari Nataraj, who is aiming to shine in the Freestyle sprints, Siva Sridhar (Karnataka) and a host of