Gold for Khade

It was a day of close contests and blanket finishes at the Asian Age-Group Swimming Championships in Tokyo.

On Day One, India won three gold, a silver and five bronze medals including one in diving and one in women’s water polo.

Olympians Veerdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal came up with record-breaking performances.

Khade set up a meet record en route to winning the 100m butterfly. He clocked a timing of 0::52:77. Sejwal bettered his national record by clocking 0::27:40 in the 50m breaststroke in the Open category.

Among others, Bangalore’s Gagan AP and Aaron D’Souza rewrote marks in the group I boys’ category.

While Gagan broke a four-year-old record to win the 800metres freestyle with a timing of 08::26:57, Aaron bettered the 200m freestyle record by over two seconds with 1::52:74 on the clock to win the gold. In the girls’ Open category, Richa Mishra won a bronze in 400m freestyle.

It was a disappointing day for Rehan Poncha, who missed the bronze medal by a whisker but created a national record in the 400m freestyle, clocking 4::01:83.