Indian swimmers pick three silver

India bagged three more silver and a bronze medal in aquatics as the gold medal continued to elude the home swimmers in the Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

India started the day on a great note with Mandar Divse finishing second in the first race of the day's programme (1500m freestyle) but failed to make the most of the depleted field in the 4x100 relay events where they could win only a bronze (men) and a silver (women).

Nisha Millet drew applause for winning the 400 metres silver after recovering from a hopeless position. She finished ahead of crowd favourite, one-legged South African swimmer Natalie Dutoit, who claimed the bronze medal.

Today's performance highlighted the standard of the swimmers in the fray as not a single new World or Continental record was set in all the six events.

Amongst the Indians swimmers, only two - 15-year-old V Sivaranjani and Gairik Bardhan - failed to return with a medal. They put up a highly disappointing performance and finished sixth in the 200m events for women and men respectively.

Today's medals take India's haul from the pool to 15 (seven silver and eight bronze).

Japan, who got two gold today, continue to dominate. They have 10 medals, including seven gold and two silver.

Millet showed her fighting spirit when she recovered after a poor start in the nick of time to push Natalie behind and win the silver. She was placed seventh in a field of eight after the first 50 metres, but showing great character she overtook the other swimmers to move to third place when the fight for the last 50m begun.

With the crowd cheering her, Millet had a neck and neck contest with Natalie before surging ahead of the South African with just 10 metres to go.

Millet clocked 4min 31.33 seconds against Natalie's 4:32.53.

Hua Chen of China stamped her authority in the race, winning the gold medal in 4:25.90s.

Mandar Divse started the silver hunt when he timed 16:49.75s for a second place finish behind Charlton Lee of South Africa (16:43.83).

Though both the relay teams bagged medals, they failed to impress. The men's 4x100m freestyle team, comprising Deepak Singh, N A Krishna, Parikshit Shetty and Sujith could only get a bronze only due to a poor start.

Amongst the quartet, only Sujith came up with an valiant attempt and gave some anxious moments to the second-placed Chinese opponent in the last 100m but he failed to undo the damage done by some ordinary display by the first three swimmers.

The Indian team's bronze medal came with a timing of 3:45.42s.

The gold in the event went to Algeria (3:30.45s) while China took the silver (3:44.82s).

The famed duo of Shikha Tandon and Richa Mishra were part of the women's 4x100m medley.

The team, also comprising D Mridula and Reshma Millet, finished more than 12 seconds behind the South Africans, who claimed the gold.

India finished in 4:24.58 while the third-team in the fray, The Philipines, took the bronze in 4:48.13s.

Japan dominated the 200m breaststroke events, with Hiroka Sakamota (2:33.50s) claiming the gold in the men's category and Genki Imamura (2:17.04s) topping in the women's section.

Results:

1500m freestyle (M): Charlton Lee (SA) 16mins 43.83secs; Mandar Divse (IND) 16:49.75s; Steven Mangroo (Seychelles) 17:29.44s.

400m freestyle (W): Hua Chen (CHN) 4:25.90s; Nisha Millet (IND) 4:31.33s; Natalie Dutoit (SA) 4:32.53s.

200m breaststroke(M): Genki Imamura (JPN) 2:17.04s; Dofiane Daid (Algeria) 2:17.88s; Malik Fall (Senegal) 2:20.56s.

200m breaststroke (W): Hiroka Sakamoto (JPN) 2:33.50s; Ingrid Gail Haiden (SA) 2:35.62s; Cho A Ra (KOR) 2:37.53s.

4x100m Freestyle relay (M):  South Africa 3:30.45s; China 3:44.82s; India 3:45.42s.

4x100m Medley relay (W): South Africa 4:24.58s; India 4:37.51s; The Philippines 4:48.13s.