Asian Aquatics Championships: Indian divers make historic splash, bag four medals on day 2

Ahmedabad: Bengaluru’s Srihari Nataraj extended his medal run at the Asian Aquatics Championships to four on Monday as he bagged the silver medal in a thrilling 4x200m freestyle relay final here. India clinched four medals -- including three bronze -- on the day, taking their tally to seven while Indian divers scripted history.

In the men’s freestyle relay, Srihari’s state-mate Aneesh Gowda, along with Sajan Prakash, Shoan Ganguly, held on to the second spot (7:23.38 seconds) from start to finish while Malaysia dangerously closed in in the final leg. Malaysia Yeun Chuen Lim also caught up with Srihari at the finish line. However, the 24-year-old Kannadiga ensured India took the second place by mere 0.05 seconds while Malaysia took bronze at 7:23.43.

The nail-biter overshadowed a historic moment for India diving as Manipur duo of Indiver Sairem and Willson Sing Ningthoujam clinched India’s first-ever medal in the men’s synchronised 10m springboard event since the inception of the event in 1980.

The Indian pair totalled 300.66 points across five rounds to clinch the bronze medal behind powerhouse China (381.75) and Malaysia (329.73). This was also a watershed moment for Indian diving, who has struggled for recognition due to lack of medals at the international level.

Kushagra, Rishabh win bronze

Meanwhile swimming’s medal show continued as Rishabh Das and Kushagra Rawat grabbed bronze medals in individual 200m backstroke and 1500m freestyle. Rawat, who clocked 15.30.88, stayed with the leading pack of Vietnam’s Huy Hoang Nguyen (gold) and Uzbekistan’s Ilya Sibirtsev but the experienced swimmers’ endurance was too much to take for the Indian, who never allowed Japan’s Hinata Ando to catch up.

China continue to top the medal tally with 21 gold out of 28 events while Japan and Hong Kong trail them at the second spot with two gold each. India are down at 9th place with seven medals (three silver and four bronze) but are yet to win a gold.

Swimming: Men: 50m freestyle: Ali Tamer Hassan (QAT) 22.45, 1; Gleb Kovalenya (KAZ) 22.81, 2; Mu Lun Chuang (TPE) 22.82, 3.

50m breaststroke: Haiyang Qin (CHN) 26.99s, 1; Aibat Myrzamuratov (KAZ) 28.04, 2; Mohamed Mahmoud Mohamed (QAT) 28.09, 3.

200m backstroke: Gukailai Wang (CHN) 1:59.78s, 1; Rui Yoshida (JPN) 2:01.66, 2; Rishabh Das (IND) 2:02.64, 3.

1500m freestyle: Huy Hoang Nguyen (VIE) 15:15.01s, 1; Ilya Sibir­tsev (UZB) 15:23.35, 2; Kushagra Rawat (IND) 15:30.88, 3.

4x200m freestyle relay: China 7:21.05s, 1; India 7:23.38, 2; Malaysia 7:23.43, 3.

Women: 50m freestyle: Mingyu Luo (CHN) 25.53s, 1; Yi Chen Chiu (TPE) 25.57, 2; Sum Yiu Li (HKG) 25.64, 3.

50m backstroke: Wui Kiu Man (HKG) 32.04s, 1; Wing Yi Claire Cheung (HKG) 32.26, 2; Yi Chen Chiu (TPE) 32.29, 3.

200m backstroke: Misaki Kasahara (JPN) 2:12.09s, 1; Jiawei Li (CHN) 2:12.13, 2; Mia Millar (THA) 2:16.51, 3.

400m medley: Yanjun Zhou (CHN) 4:44.88s, 1; Koharu Nakazawa (JPN) 4:47.40, 2; Thi My Tien Vo (VIE) 4:49.81 3.

4x200m freestyle relay: China 8:14.79, 1; Hong Kong 8:16.93, 2; Thailand 8:32.17, 3.

Diving: Men: Synchronised 10m platform: Zhangyu Cui/ Zhanhong Xu (CHN) 381.75pts, 1; Bertrand Rhodict Lises/ Enrique M. Harold (MAS) 329.73, 2; Indiver Sairem/ Willson Sing Ningthoujam (IND) 300.66, 3.

Women: 1m springboard: Linxi Ye (CHN) 264.35pts, 1; Sijia Li (CHN) 253.10, 2; Ziyi Wang (HKG) 218.90, 3.

Synchronised 10m platform: Xiahan Wu/ Zihan Liu (CHN) 317.04pts, 1; Nur Muhammad Abrar Raj/ Nurul Farisya A. Affendi (MAS) 235.86, 2; Gladies Lariesa G. Kore/ Linar Betiliana (INA) 209.58, 3.