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Swimming

Kushagra Rawat secures 1500m gold at South Africa Aquatics Meet

Kushagra won India's first medal at the South Africa Aquatics Meet, while Maana Patel made a 13th place finish in the 50m Backstroke event.

Swimmer Kushagra Rawat (Source: New Indian Express)
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Swimmer Kushagra Rawat (Source: New Indian Express)

By

The Bridge Desk

Updated: 9 April 2024 8:20 AM GMT

Freestyle swimmer Kushagra Rawat secured the first medal for India at the South Africa Aquatics meet in Newton Park Swimming Pool, Gqeberha, South Africa on Monday.

He clocked a time of 15:41:61 to win the gold medal in the men's 1500m freestyle event. He was eight seconds ahead of the second-placed Matthew Caldwell of South Africa.

The six-member Indian swimming contingent is competing under the team of Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) at the event.

Two more Indian swimmers, Anurag Singh (16:22.75) and Krishna Gadakh (16:56.71), finished 5th and 10th respectively in the same event.

Kushagra won the gold medal but could not better his personal best timing (15:31.65) and is still very much behind the Olympic Qualification mark of 15:00.99.

Meanwhile, national record holder Maana Patel missed the women's 50m backstroke final A, clocking a time of 30.53 seconds in the preliminary round. She finished in 13th position overall after her Final B performance, with a time of 30.75 seconds.

Both Kushagra and Maana have a few more events lined up in the coming days, where they will be aiming for even better timings.

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