Thrissur: Asserting their supremacy, Karnataka swimmers picked up four gold, two silver and two bronze medals with two record breaking performances on the inaugural day of the 59th National Aquatic Championship, here on Tuesday.

Karnataka’s 19-year-old Rehan Poncha got off to a flying start in the 400 m freestyle and captured the gold, clocking 4:09.18. In the process, he surpassed his meet record of 4:10:95, which he set in 2004.

M.A. Divse of Police with 4:11.25 and Rohit.R. Hawaldar of Karnataka with 4:15.92 settled for the silver and bronze medals respectively. In the women’s section, Karnataka’s C. Shubha shattered her record in the 50 m butterfly event, to clinch the gold with a time of 0:29.44. The previous record was 00:29.76 set in 2004.

Pooja R Alva of Karnataka came up with a brilliant performance to clinch gold in the 400m freestyle by clocking 04:49.47, edging her statemate K. Shipra to second spot at 04:50.77 and Awani A Sawant of Police at 04:51.47 to third place.

In waterpolo matches Maharashtra defeated Manipur 14-1 and Bengal beat Karnataka 9-4.While in the men’s category, Maharashtra defeated Delhi 7-3, Karnataka bt Punjab 7-5 and hosts Kerala defeated Manipur 8-4. (PTI)