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Veerdhawal did better in 50m freestyle . He clocked 22.79 (still outside his national record ) to finish oveeall 44th & 5th among Asian competitiors. He was also the yougest to finish anmong top 50.

So, best finish in this world championships thus far for an Indian has been from Sandip Sejwal who finished 32nd in 200 m breast stroke. ( again 5th among Asian cometitiors). He slso finished among top 40 in his 2 other events of 50M & 100M breaststroke.

Veer & Sandip look to be around 5th -7th in Asia in their respective categories. Big challange for them is to make improvement over next year or so to try & get medals in Asian games. If that happenes , it will be a major stepping stone towards success at London olympics.

Yesterday Veer participated in 3 events and I feel that reflected in his performance.

At 13th FINA World Championship, Rome, Italy

Day 6
Men's 50m Freestyle
44 Virdhawal Khade IND 22.79 secs +01.42 secs
111 Arjun Jayaprakash IND 24.37 secs +03.00 secs

Men's 100m Butterfly
85 Virdhawal Khade IND 55.28 secs +04.72 secs
86 Rehan Poncha IND 55.29 secs +04.73 secs

Women's 50m Butterfly
74 Chittaranjan Shubha IND 29.48 secs +04.04 secs
96 Vandita Dhariyal IND 30.65 secs +05.21 secs

Men's 4x 200m Freestyle
22 India 8:07.84
Mandar Divase 2:00.23
Virdhawal Khade 2:01.54
Rehan Poncha 2:04.98
Ashwin Menon 2:01.09

Mandar Divase bettered his own national record by almost 5 seconds, previous record of 16:17.07sec which he made in last year's Senior National Swimming Championships.

At 13th FINA World Championship, Rome, Italy

Day 7
Men's 1500m Freestyle
32 Mandar Divase IND 16:12.28 mins +1:17.74 mins (new National record)

Women's 50m Freestyle
97 Chittaranjan Shubha IND 28.04 secs +03.80 secs
110 Talasha Prabhu IND 28.53 secs +04.29 secs

Women's 50m Breaststroke
93 Murugaperumal Mercy Venpa IND 40.67 secs +10.43 secs

Women's 4x 100m Medley Relay
33 India 4:53.02 mins +1:09.81 mins
Fariha Zaman 1:11.89 mins
Murugaperumal Mercy Venpa 1:28.78 mins
Pooja Raghava Alva 1:08.24 mins
Chittaranjan Shubha 1:04.11 mins

Significant improvement by Sandip Sejwal in this world championship and he appears to be our best swimmer right now. Sandip and Veerdhawal are our only world class swimmers right now -- some of the other men are still swimming worse than the times recorded by the top women. for example, Mandar Divase's national record would have put him 8th in the 1500m women's final.

Veer & Sandip look to be around 5th -7th in Asia in their respective categories. Big challange for them is to make improvement over next year or so to try & get medals in Asian games. If that happenes , it will be a major stepping stone towards success at London olympics.

You would have to define success as making the semifinals. I don't think they have any chance of winning medals at the olympic level as the top swim nations like Australia, US etc. have too much depth. While only 2 can compete in each event, they have several other swimmers who are faster than Veerdhawal and Sandip.

An Asiad medal is a possibility though. Even though the top 1-2 Asian swimmers are really world class, it appears that the top Asian countries do not have the same depth. So it is more likely that they could medal at the Asian level than even make the finals at the Olympic level.

What I meant as success was an entry in the finals ( which itself would be difficult as you say). I think even Asian games medal for both or either of them would be big since no one has come anywhere close to medal since Khajan Singh won the silver in 1986.

Rehan Poncha bettered his own national record by more than 2 seconds in Men's 400m Individual Medley, he created record in 2007 of 4:33.59sec.

At 13th FINA World Championship, Rome, Italy

Day 8
Men's 400m Individual Medley
42 Rehan Poncha IND 4:31.34sec +21.30 secs (new National record)

Women's 400m Individual Medley
44 Pooja Raghava Alva IND 5:28.37sec +53.75 secs

Men's 4x 100m Medley Relay
30 India 3:48.85sec +19.37 secs
Ashwin Menon 1:00.83sec
Sandeep Sejwal 1:02.28sec
Rehan Poncha 55.52sec
Virdhawal Khade 50.22sec

Sandip Sejwal's fine efforts in the World Championship has resulted him being ranked in the top 70 in each of the 50, 100 and 200 m breastsroke (he is 63, 67, and 70 respectively). Veerdhawal Khade is 132nd in the 50m butterfly. I don't think any of the other Indians feature in the top 150.

BTW, in the 100m, Sandip is 14th in Asia but the vast majority in front of him are Japanese swimmers (8 or 9) with 2 Chinese and 2 Kazaks. Assuming that Japan is limited to 2 swimmers, he could be among the 6-7 fastest going into an Asian swimming event.

Khade won gold in 100m butterfly event in Asian age aquatic championships, smashing national and meet records with amazing time of 52.77s!! Also bettered his personal best of 54.01s, also much better than the 55.28s he posted in Italy. What happened here!! A combination of being off-color in Italy and a good start here I guess.

Looks like we have won 4 bronze medals in the ongoing Asian Swimming championships with competitive timings although not individual bests.

1. V. Khade 3rd in 50 butterfly at 24.14s
2. S. Sejwal 3rd in 100 breastsroke at 1:01.90
3. Aaron D'Souza 3rd in 200 freestyle at 1:50.70
4. 3rd in the 4x100 medley relay at 3:45.53

It's great to be winning at the Asian level. Wonder what the field was like? Did the Chinese and Japanese have their full strength teams?

India won two more medals today. Khade won a silver in 200m freestyle with a timing 49.69s & Sandeep Sejwal won another bronze in 200m breaststrke with a timing of 2.14.99s.

These championships are held in China . So, best Chinese swimmers should be there but I am sure best of Japanese ( & maybe Korean) swimmers are not there as Indians are winning medals even without clocking personal bests. With similar or even slightly better timings they stood 5th-7th among Asians at would championships. Still, it is good to see Indians winning so many medals at Asian level.

Khade also won the bronze in the 50m freestyle clocking 22.67. Pretty good showing by the Indians even if some of the best from Japan and Korea may not have been there. I wonder if our men are now the fourth best in Asia behind the Asian big 3 of China, Japan, and Korea.

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It's good thread keep it up...

can neone tell me abt the best performance/ performances by the Indian swimmer/swimmers in Commonwealth games?