Bengaluru swimmers make waves

Ahmedabad: Benediction Rohit continued India’s medal run at the Asian Aquatics Championships here as the Bengaluru-based swimmer grabbed silver in 50m butterfly on Tuesday. The youngster missed out on the gold by mere 0.15 seconds while setting the fastest Indian timing in the event at 23.89 seconds.

Meanwhile, his City-mate Srihari Nataraj stretched his personal medal haul to five with a bronze in the men’s 100m freestyle final.

In the 50m butterfly dash, 22-year-old Rohit (23.89 seconds) fought to the finish wall with Kazakhstan’s Adilbek Mussin (23.74). The Indian, however, had to fend off another Kazakh for the silver as Maxim Skazobtsov was mere 0.01 behind at third place.

Tamil Nadu’s Rohit, who trains in Bengaluru and became the first Indian to clock sub-24 second timing, improved his previous best of 23.96.

In a close battle to the touchpad, Srihari (49.96) finished just 0.77 seconds behind gold medallist Haoyu Wang of China followed by Qatar’s Ali Tamer Hassan (49.46). His state-mate Akash Mani missed out on a podium finish as he finished right behind Srihari with a timing of 50.45.

The 24-year-old Bengaluru man, who has bagged five medals out of his six events, won three medals on the opening day -- two silver (200m freestyle and 50m backstroke) and a bronze (men’s 4x100m relay medley) – followed by another silver in the 4x200m relay freestyle on the second day.

India’s medal tally surged to nine (four silver and five bronze) with the two medals on the day and they remain at the ninth place. They also surpassed India’s medal tally of seven from 2009 edition, which was India’s best showing at the Asian meet before.

Meanwhile, China continued to reign supreme with 28 gold out of 38 events so far. Their overall medal tally stands at 36.

Results: Swimming: Men: 50m butterfly: Adilbek Mussin (KAZ) 23.74s, 1; Benedicton R. Beniston (IND) 23.89, 2; Maxim Skazobtsov (KAZ) 23.90, 3.

100m backstroke: Haiyang Qin (CHN) 59.07s, 1; Thanh Bao Pham (VIE) 1:01.08, 2; Yik Ki Tsui (HKG) 1:01.89, 3.

400m freestyle: Haibo Xu (CHN) 3:49.29s, 1; Huy Hoang Nguyen (VIE) 3:51.63, 2; Hoe Yean Khiew (MAS) 3:52.69, 3.

100m freestyle: Haoyu Wang (CHN) 49.19s, 1; Ali Tamer Hassan (QAT) 49.46, 2; Srihari Nataraj (IND) 49.96, 3.

Women: 100m backstroke: Wui Kiu Man (HKG) 1:09.12s, 1; Yijing Wang (CHN) 1:09.79, 2; Koharu Nakazawa (JPN) 1:10.14, 3.

800m freestyle: 100m freestyle: 100m freestyle: Mingyu Luo (CHN) 55.63s, 1; Sum Yiu Li (HKG) 55.92, 2; Thuy Hien Nguyen (VIE) 56.01, 3.

200m medley: 200m breaststroke: Mana Ishikawa (JPN) 2:12.00s, 1; Yanjun Zhou (CHN) 2:15.30, 2; Thi My Tien Vo (VIE) 2:15.96, 3.

800m freestyle: Haruno Tanimoto (JPN) 8:47.48s, 1; Thi My Tien Vo (VIE) 8:54.43, 2; Jialian Candice Gao (HKG) 9:02.82, 3.

Mixed: 4x100m freestyle relay: China 3:29.25, 1; Chinese Taipei 3:34.68, 2; Kazakhstan 3:35.36, 3.

Diving: Men: 3m springboard: Xiaohu Tai (CHN) 455.25 pts, 1; Hengnuo Lin (CHN) 432.45, 2; Vyacheslav Kachanov (UZB) 368.85, 3.

Women: Platform: Zihan Liu (CHN) 370.25 pts, 1; Xiahan Wu (CHN) 298.75, 2; Nur Muhammad Abrar Raj (MAS) 240.10, 3.