India win Asian swimming relay
A dominant Indian team clinched gold in the 4x100m men’s freestyle relay on the opening day of the Asian Age-Group Championships after emerging almost five seconds faster than nearest rival Iran, here on Tuesday.The Indian quartet, comprising Srihari Nataraj, Anand Anilkumar, Sajan Prakash and Virdhawal Khade clocked 3:23.72 seconds. Uzbekistan finished third, clocking 3:30.59 seconds at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence.
First to get off the blocks for India, Srihari ensured his team got off to a flying start as he touched the pads in 50.68 seconds while Iranian swimmer Sina Gholampour clocked 51.42. Anand, swimming the second 100, was impressive as he kept up the lead. He came back in 51.28 seconds while Sajan clocked 51.37. Khade’s powerful 50.39 seconds guaranteed India’s place on top of the podium.
GOOD START
“It was important that the team got off to a good start and I was entrusted with that responsibility. It was a great effort from all of us and it feels good to win India’s first gold at the Championships,” said Srihari.
TWO SILVER
In the 4x100m freestyle relay for open category women, Indian team comprising Rujuta Khade (59.83), Divya Satija (1:01.61), Shivani Kataria (59.57) and Maana Patel (59.75) won silver medal with a total time of 4:00.76 seconds while Thailand bagged gold with 3:54.29 seconds and Hong Kong finished third with a time of 4:08.64 seconds.
India’s second silver medal came in the 4x100m freestyle relay for group II boys. The team featuring Vedaant Madhavan (55.27), Utkarsh Patil (57.10), Sahil Laskar (54.83) and Shoan Ganguly (54.29) clocked a total time of 3:41.49 seconds. They finished behind Japan who won the gold with a time of 3:34.60 seconds which was a New Meet Record (NMR). The previous record of 3:39.03 seconds was also held by Japan. The bronze medal was won by Chinese Taipei who clocked 3:42.29 seconds.