Thiruvananthapuram: 73 gold, rest of Kerala: 30 gold in swimming

Hosts Thiruvananthapuram emerged overall champions in swimming at the Kerala State School Games on Saturday. Such was Thiruvananthapuram's domination at the Pirappancode Aquatic Complex over the last four days that the combined tally of 10 other participating districts was only a little more than half of the total points accumulated by the champions.

Thiruvananthapuram amassed 649 points, comprising an enviable haul of 182 medals, including 73 gold and 63 silver.

Thrissur pipped Ernakulam for the second spot with 43 medals, of which 16 were gold. Ernakulam's medal tally read: 8 gold, 18 silver, 16 bronze.

Invariably, institutions from Thiruvananthapuram took up the top-six positions in the best schools list. M V HSS Thundathil finished a distant first with 118 points, while Government HSS Pirappancode claimed the second spot on 64 points. Government Girls HSS Kanniakulangara (58), Government HSS Venjaramood (50), BNVV HSS Thiruvallom (48) and VPS Malankara HSS Venganoor (25) completed the top-six list.

Five-star performer
For Sreehari P, the venue was essentially his home pool as he had learnt swimming there. So it wasn't surprising when he pulled out five gold medals, with three on record timings.

The native of Vembayam studies plus-two at the GV HSS at Pirappancode. He clocked 53.29 seconds for a meet record in 100-metre freestyle, and also set record times in 200 m freestyle (1:56.78) and 200 m medley (2:12.55).

Triple-record gold
Sub-junior swimmer Aajushi Avantikaa was one of the stars of champion school, Thundathil. She broke three records, one set in 2011 in 50-metre freestyle. Aajushi clocked 29.63 seconds to break the previous mark of 31.02 held by Jomy George.

She was also the quickest on a record time in 50-metre backstroke, breaking Shivanshi P's 2023-mark of 38.29 seconds with an impressive 34.60. In 100 m freestyle, the Class 8 student did a sub-1:08 with a meet record of 1:07.49.