Thaindian News

Guangzhou, Nov 16 (IANS) Virdhawal Khade brought a swimming medal for India after 24 years, winning the bronze in the 50m butterfly at the Asian Games here Tuesday.

Khade made up for his disappointing fourth-place finish in 50m freestyle Monday by clocking 24.31 seconds for a third-place finish at the Aoti Aquatics Centre. China’s Jiawei Zhou (23.66 secs) won the gold while the silver went to Japan’s Masayuki Kishida (24.13 secs).

Khade’s medal is India’s first in the sport after Khajan Singh won a silver at the 1986 Seoul edition.

The only Indian swimmer to win a gold medal so far is Sachin Nag in the 100 metres freestyle at the inaugural Asian Games in Delhi in 1951.

The 19-year-old Khade earlier topped the heats (24.56secs) to storm into the medal round.

Khade missed out on 50m freestyle bronze by just 0.03 secs Monday as he admitted of making a mistake by reaching out for the board with his right hand.

“It feels great to win a medal for India after 24 years. I was desperate to win this medal after missing the bronze Monday,” an elated Khade said minutes after the medal ceremony.

“Obviously a silver or gold would have made me feel better, because I know I can come at the top of this field. The start is a problem for me and I am working on it.”

“It is very difficult to catch up if you make a bad start in 50 meters,” he said.

Another Indian, Anshul Kothari, too topped his heat in the 50 metres butterfly, clocking 26.08 secs but it was not enough for him to make the final cut as his timing was behind the qualifying mark.

In the men’s 100-metre backstroke heats, Rehan Poncha (59.38 secs) finished sixth and Badrinath Melkote (59.62 secs) seventh.

Mandar Anandrao Divase finished eighth (4:08.22 secs) in the men’s 400 metres freestyle heats.

The men’s 4×100 metres freestyle relay team of Aaron Agnel Dsouza, Arjun Jayaprakash, Anshul Kothari and Khade came fourth in the heats with a timing of 3:29.71.