Zhi emerges fastest swimmer

Khade loses bronze by whisker, finishes creditable fourth in 50 freestyle

Zhi powered home in 22.37 seconds,0.08 seconds ahead of Masayuki Kishida of Japan, who clinched silver in 22.45.

Khade missed the bronze medal by a whisker by a razor-thin 0.03 second margin to Rammaru Harada of Japan. The 19-year-old Khade timed 22.87 for the fourth place while Harada took home the bronze in 22.84. “I made a mistake by reaching out for the board with my right hand. Another stroke instead and the result could have been different,” Khade said.

Khade was below his national record time of 22.55.  
However, the rest of the Indians in action disappointed. Arjun JP, who was also competing in the 50  freestyle, clocked 24.34 to finish third in his heat but eventually fell below the qualifying time when overall timings were taken.

In 100M breaststroke, Sandeep Sejwal timed 1:03.67 to finish third in his heat but couldn’t make the grade.

The story was the same with Rohit R Havaldar and Rehan Poncha in the 200M backstroke. Rohit (2:12.79) was a good 10.25 seconds behind the eventual winner in his qualifying group. Rehan ended seventh in his heat with a timing of 2:18.56.

Results: Men: 50M freestyle: Zhi Wu Lu (Chn) 22.37 seconds, 1; Masayuki Kishida (Jpn) 22.45, 2; Rammaru Harada (Jpn) 22.84, 3; Virdhawal Khade (Ind) 22.87, 4.

200M backstroke: Irie Ryosuke (Jpn) 1:55.45, 1; Fenglin Zhang (Chn) 1:57.53, 2; Feiyi Cheng (Chn) 1:58.93, 3. 100M breaststroke: Ryo Tateishi (Jpn) 1:00.38, 1; Vladislav Polyakov (Kaz) 1:01.03, 2; Shuai Wang (Chn) 1:01.71, 3.

4x200M freestyle relay: China (Lin Zhang, Haiqi Jiang, Yun Qi Li, Yang Sun) 7:07.68, 1; Japan (Yuki  Kobori, Sho Uchida, Shunsuke Kuzuhara, Takeshi Matsuda) 7:10.39, 2; South Korea (Joonmo Bae, Sangjin  Jang, Hyun Seung Lee, Park Tae-hwan) 7:24.14, 3.

Women: 400M freestyle: Yiwen Shao (Chn) 4:05.58, 1; Jing Liu (Chn) 4:08.89, 2; Younjeong Seo (S Korea) 4:14.50, 3.

50M backstroke: Chang Gao (Chn) 27.45, 1; Aya Terakawa (Jpn) 27.86, 2; Tianlongzi Xu (Chn) 28.14, 3.

200M butterfly: Liuyang Jiao (Chn) 2:05.79, 1; Natsumi Hoshi (Jpn) 2:07.96, 2; Hye Ra Choi (S Korea) 2:08.39, 3.