PUNE, July 14: Tejaswi Shetty of Maharashtra is all poised to ascend as the queen of pool in the group-III section of the 12th sub-junior National aquatic championship, at the Balewadi Sports Complex, here today.

The Mumbai lass who began the day with three gold medals which she won yesterday added another to her kitty which includes a silver and bronze.

In the boys' section Prakshit Shetty and Rohan Poncha seem to be running neck to neck for the coveted title.

Sudip Chatterjee of Bengal is sitting pretty with four gold medals in group- IV while Ambica N S Iyengar leads the girls section.

Sudip Chatterjee who had three gold medals yesterday added a fourth in spectacular style, here today.

He eclipsed Manipur's M Robinder mark set in the 1995 edition by (0.36s) in the 100 breast stroke event. Robinder's record was 1:15.57.

Taking off first from the block, Sudip swam the first 50 meters in just 36 seconds with teamate Gauranga Mondal following closely. The end result was near same as both finished in identical fashion as they began.

Overcoming early hicups Tejaswi Shetty of Maharashtra who trailed her teammate Bhavna Sharma, hit the front from the 75 meter mark to canter home with relative ease.

Earlier in the first event of the day, Snehasish Mukerjee of Bengal who was beat Jay Shah in the boys group-III 100m free-style, after the Maharashtra challenger Jay Shah, kept abreast with him till the lats 25 meters.

Rohan Poncha could have added a gold under his belt had he not fumbled midway in the 100m boys group-IV, which had teammate Parikshit Shetty capitalise and take the cake. It was Parikshit Shetty who held sway as he had clocked 1:05.98 in the heats, but Rehan gave the favourite a run for his money.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.