Asian Age Group C'ship: Indian men's relay team bags gold

Bengaluru: India made a great start at the Asian Age Group Swimming Championships as the quartet comprising Srihari Nataraj, Anand Anilkumar, Sajan Prakash and Virdhawal Khade bagged gold in the 4x100m men's freestyle relay event here on Tuesday.

The Indian team finished first after clocking 3:23.72 seconds, which was five seconds faster than Iran, which finished second with a time of 3:28.46 while Uzbekistan settled for the third spot after clocking 3:30.59 seconds.

Srihari handed a positive start to India as he clocked 50.68 seconds while Iran's Sina Gholampour finished at 51.42 seconds. Anand kept up the lead for India as he finished in 51.28 seconds while Sajan clocked 51.37 seconds. Later, Virdhawal clocked an excellent 50.39 seconds in the final 100m which handed India the yellow metal.

Meanwhile, in the women 4x100m freestyle relay for open category, the Indian team featuring Rujuta Khade (59.83s), Divya Satija (1:01.61s), Shivani Kataria (59.57s) and Maana Patel (59.75s) won silver with a total time of 4:00.76 seconds.

Thailand bagged gold with a timing of 3:54.29 seconds and Hong Kong finished third by clocking 4:08.64 seconds.