Asian Games: Indian women's 4x100 m freestyle relay swimming team finishes seventh in final

HANGZHOU: The Indian women's 4x100 m freestyle relay team consisting of Dhinidhi Desinghu, Maana Patel, Janhvi Choudhary, Shivangi Sarma secured seventh place finish in the final of their discipline at the ongoing Asian Games at Hangzhou on Sunday. Clocking a timing of 3:54.66, India finished in seventh spot.

At the podium was China (3:33.96), establishing an Asian Games record, followed by Japan, who took home silver with the timings of 3:38.48 and finally Hong Kong, who bagged the bronze with timings of 3:39.10. The women's 4x100m freestyle relay made the final after clocking 3:53.80 in heat 2. With a fantastic time of 3:53.80, the team of Shivangi Sarma, Dinidhi Desinghu, Maana Patel and Janhvi Choudhary secured a spot in the final.

Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj missed a chance to win a medal in the men's 100-meter backstroke at the 19th Asian Games. He finished sixth in the final on Sunday. Starting the race with the second position, Nataraj recorded a time of 54.48 with a reaction time of 0.60.

Nataraj on the back of his fine performance reached the men's 100m backstroke final earlier in the day. He recorded his season-best time of 54.71. China's Xu Jiayu clinched the gold medal while Japan's Irie Ryosuke claimed silver and Korea's Lee Juho won the bronze medal in the event.

Utkarsh Santosh Patil, on the other hand, failed to make the final of the same event. Fellow swimmers Tanish Mathew George and Anand Anil Kumar, who both finished fifth in their respective heats, also did not advance to the men's 100m freestyle final. The swimming events at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Aquatic Sports Arena will go on from September 24 to September 29. The Indian contingent features 21 swimmers - 12 men and nine women.