The talented Richa Mishra of Andhra Pradesh set the pool ablaze with two record-breaking efforts while gymnast Vikas Pandey also continued his gold grabbing act with two more collections as seven records tumbled in the 32nd National Games in Hyderabad on Monday.
Richa displayed her class by picking up two gold medals with record-breaking efforts, but the strong Karnataka contingent ruled the roost, scooping up three of the six gold medals at stake in the swimming event.
Richa, representing Andhra Pradesh in this edition of the sporting extravaganza, established a new Games record in the women's 400 metres freestyle and 50 metres butterfly events on a day which saw three records fall by the wayside at the Aquatic Complex.
Bengal's seasoned swimmer Akbar Ali Mir also brought the spotlight on himself by creating a new record in the men's 50 metres butterfly event to give his team the first gold from the pool.
Vikas Pandey of Uttar Pradesh, who performed quite creditably in the recent Busan Asian Games, proved much too superior for his opponents by adding two more yellow metals to his kitty. Pandey won the gold in the floor exercises and pommel horse events to take his individual tally to three gold medals.
Hosts Andhra Pradesh also had a productive day at the badminton arena, claiming three gold medals, with their shuttlers taking the honour in the men's singles, women's singles and women's doubles events.
Madhya Pradesh started their campaign in the equestrian event in style, winning both the golds that were decided on Monday.
M S Rathore took sweet revenge for his defeat at the hands of defending champion Lt Col Sunil Shiv Das of Services in the last edition in Punjab to claim the gold in the dressage individual final.
Rathore, riding 'Tulsi', was away ahead of the competition and emerged a clear winner with 687 points while Das collected 668 points only. The bronze went to Services' Shaitan Singh (598).
In the tent pegging team event, the Madhya Pradesh quartet of A C Ajmer Singh, H C Dalbir Singh, Kanwar Sen and Jaswinder Singh dominated, collecting 103.5 points for the gold. Delhi (96.00) and Punjab (95.50) had to be content with silver and bronze respectively.
In gymnastics, Vikas Pandey added two more gold medals to the one that he won on Sunday for a golden treble.
His second gold came in the floor exercises for men where he tallied a remarkable 9.075 points. The silver was grabbed by A Sapata Chandra of Andhra Pradesh (8.850) while the bronze was won by M Shinoj (8.350).
Not one to be content with his laurels already achieved, Vikas made it a hat-trick in the pommel horse event where he tallied 9.300 points leaving behind B N Shiv Kumar of Andhra Pradesh with silver (8.600). Mayank Srivastava, also of UP and Vishal Despandey of Maharashtra shared the bronze after logging 8.475 points each.
In the vaulting horse final for women, Andhra Pradesh's Tumpa Debnath was adjudged the winner with 8.325 points while Rupali Halder (7.850) of Bengal and Asmita Chitale of Maharashtra (7.825) finished with silver and bronze respectively.
