The 10th Asian Age Group Swimming Championships, which gets underway on the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence, offers a nice opportunity for swimmers to intention for the A-cut for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Forty four Indians competed in the Asian Age Group Swimming Championships. Bengaluru hosted the tenth AASF Asian Age Group Championships 2019 for the first time, giving the Indian swimming lovers an opportunity to witness the biggest aquatic event inside the continent.
The nine-day opposition, considered as the biggest aquatic championships in Asia, will see over a thousand members taking part in 4 disciplines namely swimming, diving, water polo, and inventive swimming.
With numerous Olympic berths in line, it was important for India to start the competition on a positive note and that's exactly what happened as India ended its campaign at the 10th Asian age group championship on a high note with 64 medals.
Out of 64, 20 Gold,24 Silver and 20 Bronze were obtained.
The Indian team of Srihari Natraj, Anand Anil Kumar, Sajan Prakash, and Virdhawal Khade kicked of the Asian Age Group Swimming Championship with a yellow metal in the 4x100m men's freestyle relay on the opening day. The women's team, however, managed to clinch a silver medal in the same event.
Kushagra Rawat who also won a gold on the opening event of the championship, managed to put his hands on 4 gold medals at the end in 400m freestyle. While Srihari Natraj managed to meet a new record on his way to gold in 100m backstroke.
Kushagra clocked 3:55.81s to finish ahead of Taipei's Chang Cheng Li Wei 3:56.82 and Abbas Omar 4:01.52 of Syria.
Palak Sharma and Siddharth Pradeshi earned the nation's 19th and 20th gold. Sharma, for whom it was the first international competition, impressed with a score of 162.70 in the 5m/7.5m platform diving for women to finish ahead of Sudirman Nur Nufiidah of Indonesia (150.65) and Villafor Jana Mary of Philippines (149.30).
Ramananda Sharma and Siddharth Pradeshi won the gold in the 3m synchronised diving for open category men on the penultimate day of the 10th Asian Age Group Championships.
In the 3m springboard event for group III girls, Palak Sharma secured the silver medal with a score of 200.65 points. Actor R Madhavan ‘s son Vedaant won the silver medal along with his groupmates Utkarsh Patil, Sahil Laskar and Shoan Ganguly by representing India at 4x100m relay for 'group II boys' at the ongoing Asian age group championship. The gold medal went to Thailand while Japan won the bronze.
IT IS VEDAANT'S FIRST MEDAL FOR HIS COUNTRY
The Indian men’s 4x100m medley relay team comprising Srihari Nataraj, Sajan Prakash, Likith SP, and Virdhawal Khade won India’s ninth gold medal at the 10th Asian Age Group Swimming Championships. Virdhawal Khade clinched India’s seventh gold medal at the 10th Asian Age Group Championship
Kushagra Rawat won dual golds for the nation, finishing first in the 200m as well as in the 800m freestyle events. Rawat bagged India’s first individual gold at the Asian Age Group Swimming Championships Anand Anilkumar winning the bronze medal.
