Odisha woman swimming star Pratyasha Ray continued her excellent performance in the 1st Short Course Senior National Aquatic Championship, winning the gold medal with a National record in womens 50 meter backstroke at Veer Savarkar Sports Complex in Ahmedabad, Gujarat today.

Bhubaneswar swimmer Pratyasa clinched the gold and the National record with a time of 29.06 seconds. She erased the previous National record of 29.19 seconds, set by Olympian Manna Patel at the 13th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Windsor, Canada on 9 December 2016.

This was the second gold and third medal for 24-year-old Pratyasa, who trains at the Odisha IIS JSW Swimming HPC, Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar. She secured her first gold in the womens 100m backstroke with best Indian timing of 1:02.21 and a silver in 4×100m freestyle yesterday.
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PHOTO: Pratyasa Ray poses with her 50m backstroke gold medal at the 1st Short Course Senior National Aquatic Championship in Ahmedabad on 26 October 2026.