Srihari Nataraj of India clinched his third individual gold at 10th Asian Age Group Championships as he won the 200metres backstroke for open category men while India’s ace sprinter Virdhawal Khade also finished his campaign clinching gold in the 50metres butterfly for men; it was his second individual gold in the Championships.
The duo’s feat took India’s gold medal rush to an impressive 15 gold medals while long-distance sensation Kushagra Rawat was adjudged best swimmer of the Championships for open category men with 4 individual gold medals (200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle), 1 new meet record in 800m freestyle and one relay gold.
Srihari who clocked a time of 2:04.25 seconds finished ahead of S. Siva (2:05.23) of India and Lau Shiu Yue (2:07.68) of Hong Kong who bagged bronze. Even though Srihari did not achieve the ‘A’ qualifying mark at the Championships, the backstroke sensation is confident that he will make his debut at the Olympic Games in 2020. “I expected faster times in the Championships but I feel exhausted. I didn’t feel fresh and sharp like how I felt in Budapest (at the FINA Junior World Championships). I need to work on my recovery. Today wasn’t my best race. Nothing has changed in my quest to achieve the ‘A’ mark to qualify for the Olympics and I’m confident I’ll be there at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics,” said an optimistic Srihari who finished his campaign with six gold, one silver and 1 bronze medals.
Khade who has had an impressive meet, clocked a time of 24.22 seconds in the 50metres butterfly for open category men. Kham Abdulrazzaq Waleed (24.64) of Kuwait clinched silver and Ansari Mehdi (24.77) of Iran bronze.
Swadesh Mondal, Sahil Laskar, Soubrity Mondal and Divya Satija added a bronze medal each to India’s medal tally by finishing third in their respective events while Maana Patel clinched a silver medal in 200m backstroke event.
Earlier in the day, India won gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay for open category men. The team comprising Sajan Prakash, Kushagra Rawat, Anand Anilkumar and Srihari Nataraj clocked 7:41.06 seconds to convincingly win ahead of Thailand who times 7:49.94 seconds. Chinese Taipei won bronze with a time of 8:05.95 seconds.
In the 4x200m freestyle relay for open category women, India featuring Jayaveena AV, Rujuta Khade, Soubrity Mondal and Shivani Kataria bagged bronze. They clocked 9:15.87 seconds while Thailand won gold with a time of 8:36.16 seconds and Hong Kong won silver with a time of 9:06.45 seconds.
India furthered their medal tally with a silver in the 4×100 medley relayed for mixed group in the open category and also picked up a bronze medal in the 4x100m medley relay for group II.
Total medals won by Indian swimmers:
Open Category Men
1. Kushagra Rawat – 4 Golds in individual events and 1 Gold in relay events.
2. Srihari Natraj – 3 Golds and 1 Bronze in individual events, 3 Golds and 1 Silver in relay events.
3. Sajan Prakash – 1 Gold and 2 Silvers in individual events, 3 Golds in relay events.
4. Virdhawal Khade – 2 Golds and 1 Silver in individual events, 2 Golds in relay events
5. Anand Anil Kumar – 1 Bronze in individual events and 2 Golds in relay events.
6. Likith Selvaraj – 2 Bronze in individual events and 1 Gold, 1 Silver in relay events.
7. Siva S – 1 Silver and 1 Bronze in individual events.
Open Category Women
1. Maana Patel – 1 Gold and 2 Silvers in individual events, 2 Silvers in relay events.
2. Shivani Kataria – 2 Silvers and 2 Bronze in individual events and 4 Silvers in relay events.
3. Chahat Arora – 1 Silver in relay events.
4. Rujutha Khade – 2 Silvers in relay events.
5. Divya Satija – 1 Bronze in individual events and 3 Silvers in relay events.
6. Jayaveena – 1 Silver in relay events.
7. Soubrity Mondal – 1 Bronze in individual events and 1 Silver in relay events.
Group I Boys
1. Vikkas P – 1 Bronze in relay events.
2. C J Sanjay – 1 Bronze in relay events.
3. Adhithya D – 1 Bronze in relay events.
4. Tanish Mathew – 2 Silvers in individual events and 1 Bronze in relay events.
5. Swadesh Mondal – 1 Bronze in individual events.
Group II Boys
1. Vedaant Madhavan – 1 Silver in relay events.
2. Utkarsh Patil – 1 Silver in individual events and 1 Silver in relay events.
3. Sahil Laskar – 1 Silver, 1 Bronze in individual events and 1 Silver, 1 Bronze in relay events.
4. Shoan Ganguly – 1 Gold, 2 Silvers in individual events and 1 Silver, 1 Bronze in relay events.
Group II Girls
1. Bhavya Sachdeva – 1 Bronze in relay events.
2. Apeksha Fernandes – 1 Bronze in individual events and 1 Bronze in relay events.
3. Suvana Basker – 1 Bronze in individual events.
4. Ridhima Kumar – 1 Bronze in individual events.
