Indian swimmers made a strong start on the opening day of the Asian Age Group Championships, with Kushagra Rawat securing two gold medals in individual events. In the open men’s category, Rawat finished first in the 200m freestyle event with a time of 1:52.30 seconds, followed by Anand Anilkumar in third place with a time of 1:54.19 seconds. Syria’s Abbas Omar came in second, just a fraction of a second slower than Rawat, with a time of 1:52.33 seconds. Rawat expressed his determination to improve his time to 1:51 seconds in future competitions.
Rawat continued his success by winning the 800m freestyle event, clocking a time of 8:10.05. Chang Cheng Livei from Chinese Taipei and Abbas Omar from Syria finished second and third, respectively. Shoan Ganguly also contributed to India’s success by winning the gold medal in the 200m individual medley and a silver medal in the 200m freestyle event, while also being part of the silver-winning 4x100m freestyle relay team.
Srihari Nataraj and Maana Patel added to India’s impressive medal count by winning gold medals in the 50m backstroke event for open category men and women, respectively. Nataraj finished with a time of 25.30 seconds, while Patel clocked 29.92 seconds. Patel expressed her satisfaction in breaking the sub-30 seconds barrier after struggling with injury for the past four years.
Sajan Prakash, another top Indian swimmer, won the silver medal in the 200m individual medley event, finishing behind Ketin Nuttapong from Thailand. Likith Selvaraj contributed to India’s medal tally by winning the bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke event, with Vladislav Mustafin from Uzbhekistan and Denis Petrashov from Kyrgyzstan finishing in first and second place, respectively.