Khade sinks 50m butterfly record

V.V. Subrahmanyam

PUNE: Olympian Virdhawal Khade claimed a gold and two silvers in the pool while the Indian wrestlers won three gold medals in the third Commonwealth Youth Games at the Shiv Chatrapathi Sports Complex here on Wednesday.

The 17-year-old Khade, who finished with a silver in 200m freestyle in the first event of the evening, came back strongly in the 50m butterfly event with a new Games record of 24.25, beating the mark of 24.66 set by Corney Swanepoel of New Zealand in 2004.

Scotland’s Daniel Scott (24.38) and Thomas Barrett of Australia (24.87) took the silver and bronze respectively.
Outstanding effort

Though Khade was placed fifth in the qualification timings, he came up with an outstanding performance to live up to his billing as one of the favourites.

“I did not really tire myself out in the qualifying round and just focused on making it to the final round,” Khade said.

“I was terribly disappointed with my showing in the 200m freestyle event (1:49.86). I think the endurance level of gold medallist Ryan Napoleon of Australia (1:49.62) was truly exceptional,” he added.

Edwar McKendry of Australia (1:51.93) was the bronze medallist in 200m freestyle.
Tough

“Yes, it was really tough for me to recoup after the first event. I am happy I could do it,” said a delighted Khade.In the 4×100m freestyle relay, the Indian quartet of Khade, Aaron D’Souza, N.A. Sandeep and Ashwin Menon took the silver in a time of 3:30.20.

Australia won the gold and South Africa the bronze.
Gold rush

There was a gold rush for India in wrestling with Amit Kumar (50-kg), Jitendra (54-kg) and Rahul Aware (58-kg) finishing on top of the podium.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/