Gaurika Singh of Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) and Suvam Shrestha of Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club shattered more records as Anubhav Subba stamped Army’s domination in the 20th National Swimming Championships with a haul of eight gold medals at the International Swimming Complex on Friday.

The performance from 14-year old swimmer Singh was the highlight of the day as she set three more national records with timings that were close to male swimmers in those events. Singh will return to London with five gold medals—all with a new national records in the events she participated in. Singh set a new 100m freestyle national record of 1:00.79 minutes in the heats before winning the final in 1:02.03 to better her own mark of 1:01.78 set during the 2016 Irish Open Championships. Tisha Shakya of Central Region was second in 1:06.22 and 12-year old Duana Lama of Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club third in 1:11.31.

Singh also bettered the 100m butterfly record winning the gold in 1:07.69, which was way ahead of her previous mark of 1:10.94 set during the 12th South Asian Games in India. Lama was once again confined to silver with the timing of 1:23.07 and Lumana Shakya of Central was third in 1:50.57. Singh’s third record came in the 50m freestyle as she clocked 28.09 seconds in the heats before winning the final in 28.50 to beat Tisha (30.63) and Anusha Tandukar (32.72) of Central. Singh broke the previous mark of 28.85 set by Sofia Shah during the 12th SA Games.

Subba won the 100m freestyle in 1:00.53 ahead of Ugyen Sherpa (1.00.82) of Central Region and Shrestha (1:01.79). Subba’s 100m butterfly gold came in 1:06.66 and in the process he beat Ugyen (1:10.53) and Bishma Bahadur Baduwal (1:16.46). Subba’s other two gold came in 200m Individual Medley (IM) and 100m backstroke. He won 200m IM in 2:34.65 ahead of Sayed Hamja Shah (2:39.43) of Central and clubmate Rupesh Chaudhary (2:48.52). Subba won the 100m backstroke in 1:18.07 to confine Manandhar (1:21.00) to second and Chaudhary (1:21.19) third. Alexander Shah won the 50m freestyle in 26.63 seconds getting the better of Devesh Manandhar (27.25) of APF, while Subba finished a rare third in 27.56.

APF swimmer Suvam Shrestha, Thursday’s record holder of 200m breaststroke which he won in 2:36.75, broke two more national records on his way to claiming double gold on Friday. Shrestha bettered his own mark of 1:11.34 winning the 100m breaststroke in 1:11.24. His previous record came during the 17th Fina World Championships in Hungary last month. He defeated Kiran Karki (1:16.78) and Bedagya Raj Joshi (1:20.37) of Central in 100m breaststroke. Shrestha set a new mark of 32.40 in the 50m backstroke heats before winning the final in 32.82. He broke the previous record mark of 32.45 set by Kiran during the 2016 21st National Open in Kathmandu.

Tisha Shakya of Central also claimed double gold. She won the 100m breaststroke in 1:26.30 to beat APF duo Lama (1:27.04) and Maharjan (1:35.66). Her second gold came in 50m breaststroke with the timing of 39.93. Lama was once again relegated to second in 41.60, while Adipsha Vaidya of (42.21) of Central finished third. 

Lama, who had set a 200m breaststroke national record on the first day, won the 200m IM in 2:54.95 ahead of her clubmates Tenzing Doma Sherpa (3:08.62) and Upasthiti Maharjan (3:09.94). Gaurika Singh combined with TAC team to win the 4x100m mixed relay in 4:20.52 to beat APF (4:32.36) and Central (4:33.09).