Chandan Sarkar of Bengal won the 68th edition of the 81 km India National Open Water Swimming Competition on the River Bhagirathi over 23 men and 4 women.

After finishing third in last year’s event, Sarkar comfortably won in 11 hours, 4 minutes over Debkumar Halder in 11:17:08 and Mohammad Moonmoon Ahmed of Bangladesh in 11:23:39 in third. The top three finishers received INR 50,000 (US$970), INR 30,000 (US$582) and INR 20,000 (US$388) in prize money respectively.

Sonu Debnath won the shorter 19 km race over 18 other men while Priyanka Karmakar out-swam 31 other women. For the shorter race, the top three finishers receive INR 20,000 (US$388), INR 15,000 (US$291) and INR 10,000 (US$194) in the downstream event.

81 km Results
1. Chandan Sarkar, 11:04:43
2. Debkumar Halder, 11:17:08
3. Mohammad Moonmoon Ahmed, 11:23:39

Men’s 19 km Results
Sonu Debnath, 2:09.32
Palash Chowdhury, 2:14.16
Jeeshan Ali, 2::14.41

Women’s 19 km Results
Priyanka Karmakar, 2:19:49
Namita Madgundi, 2::21.22
Jahnvi Bankar, 2::25.55

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