BANGALORE: India’s golden boy, Virdhawal Khade, grabbed his third gold of the meet,

13/08/09

Sporty India Updated

BANGALORE: India’s golden boy, Virdhawal Khade, grabbed his third gold of the meet, winning the 100m freestyle in 49.66s in a meet record time in the men’s Group ‘A’ (18 & above) of the Asian age group aquatic championship at Tokyo on Wednesday.

The meet record was 50.31s.

It was, however, fractionally below Khade’s National best of 49.47s set in the Commonwealth Youth Games at Pune in 2008.

The second gold of the day for India came from A.P. Gagan who won the men’s Group ‘B’ (15-17 years) 1,500m freestyle with a National record of 16:10.90s.

Gagan, who had won a gold in the 800m freestyle on the opening day, bettered Mandar Divase’s National record of 16:12.28s set at the FINA World championship in Rome.

Sandeep Sejwal bagged a bronze in the 200m breast stroke, clocking 2:12.02s.

In the process, he rewrote his own National mark of 2:13.22s established at Rome. Sejwal finished the meet with two silver and one bronze.

The Indian quartet of Rehan Poncha, Sejwal, Khade and J. Agnishwar, with a timing of 3m 50.05s, won a silver in the 4x100m medley relay.

Rehan improved his National record of 4:31.34s in the 400m individual medley, which he set at Rome, with an effort of 4:29.89s.

He, however, had to be content with the fourth spot.

In women’s Group ‘A’, Richa Mistra claimed a bronze in the 400m individual medley, finishing in a time of 5:05.72s.

Fariah Zaman, too, clinched a bronze in the 50m backstroke, clocking 31.33s.