The country's best back-stroker at the moment, local lad Srihari Nataraj bettered his own 100m backstroke record while creating a new meet record.
For the third successive day, the Olympics 'A' qualifying mark continued to elude Indian swimmers even as the hosts finish Thursday with an impressive 12 gold, 16 silver and 12 bronze at the Asian Age Group championships in Bengaluru.
The country's best back-stroker at the moment, local lad Srihari Nataraj bettered his own 100m backstroke record while creating a new meet record.
However, it was Kushagra Rawat, who stole the show with his fourth gold from the meet when he won the 400m freestyle in the men's open category. He clocked 3:55.81s to finish ahead of Chinese Taipei's Chang Cheng Li Wei (3:56.82s) and Syria's Ahmed Omar (4:01.52)
"The Championship has been good for me so far. I am swimming the 4x200m freestyle relay on Friday and am confident the Indian team will win the race and I will get my fifth gold. I'm happy with my timings, though I feel I could have done better in 400m and 800m freestyle. I was stuck at the 3:56 seconds mark for six months and I'm happy that I have broken it," said the elated 19-year-old from New Delhi after winning the race.
Kushagra's idol, Sajan Prakash, also made it to the top of the podium in the 200m butterfly with a time of 2:00.38s. He was followed by Wongcharoen Navaphat (2:01.16) of Thailand and Klzie Ayman (2:02.38) of Syria.
Nataraj enthralled the home crowd with his sensational sprint in the 100m backstroke for open category men. He created a new meet record clocking 55.06s while Atayev Merdan (55.28) from Turkmenistan settled for silver and Lau Shiu Yue (57.56) of Hong Kong won the bronze.
(Indian men (L-R) Virdhawal Khade, Sajan Prakash, Srihari Nataraj and Likith SP after winning 4x100m medley relay gold on Thursday)
In the most-exciting race of the day, Indian duo Virdhawal Khade and Nataraj were edged out by Khurshidjon Tursunov of Uzbekistan, who clocked 50.56 seconds to win the 100m freestyle gold. Khade was close behind at 50.68s while national champion Nataraj timed 50.91 seconds.
Earlier in the day, the Indian men's 4x100m medley relay team comprising Srihari Nataraj, Sajan Prakash, Likith SP and Virdhawal Khade clocked a total time of 3:46.49 seconds to beat Thailand (3:48.89) and Hong Kong (3:53.99), respectively to win gold.
"We had a good start, I was expecting to be half a second faster but maybe I was a bit exhausted from all the racing. We all swam a very good race. We led from the start to finish. It is motivating to see other Indian swimmers do well in this Championships, I feel this is the strongest team we have had and I am really excited that it is going well,' stated Nataraj after the gold-medal feat.
In the 4x100m medley relay for open category women, India comprising Maana Patel, Divya Satija, Chahat Arora and Shivani Kataria bagged silver behind Thailand.
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