Asian Aquatics Championships: Sizzling Srihari ends long wait, wins 3 medals

Ahmedabad: Srihari Nataraj ended India’s 16-year wait for a medal at the Asian Aquatics Championships with a memorable show as the 24-year-old Bengaluru man clinched three medals -- two silver and a bronze -- on the opening day of the event here on Sunday.

India’s last medals in the event came back at the 2009 edition in China, where India won one silver and six bronze. It’s also worth noting that the ongoing edition in Gujarat is taking place after a nine-year hiatus.

Srihari’s medal run started with the first final of the swimming events as he clocked 1:48.47 seconds in the 200m freestyle to finish behind China’s Haibo Xu (1:46.83). It was a close battle for the silver as Japanese Hinata Ando finished fraction of a second behind the Indian (1:48.73) at third.

Srihari, who improved his 100m and 200m freestyle national records at the World University Games last year, won his second medal in a closely-contested 50m backstroke. The Indian ace swimmer (25.46) finished a mere 350 thousandths of a second behind another Chinese opponent Gukailai Wang (25.46). India’s Rishabh Das finished fifth (25.98) in the same event while the silver went to Chinese Taipei’s Mu Lun Chuang (25.50).

His third came a bronze as the youngster swam the last leg (freestyle) of the 4x100m medley relay while teaming up with Rishabh Das (backstroke), Likith Selvaraj (breaststroke) and Rohit Benedicton (butterfly). The quartet clocked 3:40.87 behind China (3:36.93) and Chinese Taipei (3:39.40) for the third spot.

Meanwhile, in the women’s event, another Bengaluru swimming ace Dhinidhi Desinghu improved her national record to 2:02.84 (previous best 2.02.97) to finish fifth in the 200m freestyle final. China’s Mingyu Luo took the gold with a timing of 2:01.31.

Earlier in the morning, men’s diving team came close to a historic medal as the men’s synchronised 3m springboard final saw the pair of Premson Meitei Yumnam and Surajit Rajbanshi miss out on the bronze medal by less than six points. The duo accumulated a total of 313.20 to finish fifth behind bronze medal winners Uzbekistan (319.17). An opportunity was missed in the women’s event too as the pair of Sharavani Suryawanshi and Hrutika Shriram finished fourth (173.64).  

Aquatics giants China dominated the day by winning 11 of the 14 events contested on the day.

Results: Swimming: Men: 50m backstroke: Gukailai Wang (CHN) 25.11s, 1; Srihari Nataraj (IND) 25.46, 2; Mu Lun Chuang (TPE) 25.50, 3.

100 m butterfly: Kuan Hung Wang (TPE) 52.41s, 1; Maxim Skazobtsov (KAZ) 52.66, 2; Taiyu Li (CHN) 52.76, 3.

200m freestyle: Haibo Xu (CHN) 1:46.83, 1; Srihari Nataraj (IND) 1:48.47, 2; Hinata Ando (JPN) 1:48.73, 3.

200m breaststroke: Haiyang Qin (CHN) 2:09.46, 1; Iori Miyazaki (JPN) 2:12.47, 2; Thanh Bao Pham (VIE) 2:12.50, 3.

4x100m medley relay: China 3:36.93, 1; Chinese Taipei 3:39.40, 2; India 3:40.87, 3.

Women: 50m backstroke: Jiawei Li (CHN) 28.13s, 1; Sofiya Abubakirova (KAZ) 28.90, 2; Misaki Kasahara (JPN) 28.96, 3.

100m butterfly: Zhenqi Gong (CHN) 59.17, 1; Pei Yin Liu (TPE) 1:00.07, 2; Sofia Spodarenko (KAZ) 1:01.14, 3.

200m freestyle: Mingyu Luo (CHN) 2:01.31, 1; Thi My Tien Vo (VIE) 2:01.95, 2; Xintong Wang (HKG) 2:02.30, 3.

200m breaststroke: Mana Ishikawa (JPN) 2:26.36, 1; Koharu Nakazawa (JPN) 2:27.51, 2; Jialian Candice Gao (HKG) 2:29.61, 3.

1500m freestyle faster heat: Pac Tung Nikita Lam (HKG) 17:08.36, 1; Kha Nhi Nguyen (VIE) 17:23.60, 2; Thitirat Charoensup (THA) 17:30.36, 3.

4x100m medley relay: China 4:06.16, 1; Japan 4:08.54, 2; Hong Kong 4:12.79, 3.

Diving: Men: 1m springboard: Xiaohu Tai (CHN) 402.95 pts, 1; Muhammad Syafiq Puteh (MAS) 333.35, 2; Hengnuo Lin 330.90, 3.

Synchronised 3m springboard: Hengnuo Lin/ Yiyang Wu 384.99 pts, 1; Elvis Priestly Clement/ Muhammad Syafiq Puteh 342.30, 2;  Igor Myalin/ Vyacheslav Kachanov (UZB) 319.17

Women: Synchronised 3m springboard: Linxi Ye/ Mengyuan Deng (CHN) 282.60 pts, 1; Ker Ying Ong/ Nur Muhammad Abrar Raj (MAS) 233.34, 2; Barbara Chen/ Jacqueline Chen (TPI), 3.