Khade narrowly misses India''s first medal in pool in 24 years

Mon, Nov 15 10 09:38 PM

S S Ramaswamy Guangzhou, Nov 15 (PTI) Virdhawal Khade agonisingly lost the chance to become India''s first medalist in Asian Games swimming in nearly a quarter of a century when he missed the bronze medal narrowly in the men''s 50m freestyle event. The 19-year-old Khade finished just 0.03 seconds behind bronze winner Kishida Harada Rammaru of Japan after a superb effort that saw him clock 22.87 secs in the final, in which the gold medal winner Lu Zhi Wu came home in 22.37. The silver medal was won by Kishida Masayuki of Japan in 22.45 while Rammaru clocked 22.84. Khade, who is based in Bangalore and training there, had clocked a better time of 22.58 in the Asian age group championship in Japan last year. Had Khade, a national champion in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle events, managed to be inside top-three, he would have become India''s first swimming medallist in the Asian Games since Khazan Singh''s 200m butterfly silver in the 1986 Seoul Asiad. National coach Pradeep Kumar described the bronze loss as "heartbreaking". "It was heartbreaking, what else can I say? We were hoping he would be able to win a medal after several years. Any medal would have done, but then it was not to be," he said. Khade clocked 22.98 while coming in third in the sixth heat behind Kishida (22.86) and Park Mingkyu (Korea, 22.90) to qualify for the medal race. Khade''s performance was still a lot better than his other compatriots who cut a sorry figure in the pool failing to make any of the finals held today. Arjun Jayaprakash, who was also competing in the 50m freestyle event, clocked 24.34sec to finish third in his heat but way below the eventual qualifying time. In 100m breaststroke, Sandeep Sejwal was the only Indian in contention and he managed a timing of 1:03.67sec to finish third in his heat which was not good enough for the finals. Similar was the story of Havaldar Rohit Rajendra and Rehan Poncha in the 200m backstroke. Rohit managed to complete his heat in 2:12.79sec to be sixth in the standings and a good 10.25secs behind the eventual winner of his qualifying group. Rehan finished seventh in his heat with a timing of 2:18.56sec. In the men''s 4x200m freestyle relay, the Indian team of Aaron Agnel D''souza, Anandrao Mandar Divase, Rohit and Rehan clocked 7:40.03 to finish fifth in the heats. The timing could only fetch them a place in the back-up list for the finals.

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