Sport - Sports : General

Virdhawal Khade signs off in style

PUNE: Virdhawal Khade signed off the swimming competitions with a gold-medal performance in the 50m freestyle event of the third Commonwealth Youth Games at the Shiv Chatrapathi Sports Complex here on Saturday.

Khade clocked 22.68 to erase his own record of 24.29, set in the qualifying round in the morning.

Cheered from the moment he entered the arena, Khade picked his third gold, besides three silver, including two in the relay events here.

Thomas Barret of Australia (23.15) and Conor Leaney of Northern Ireland (23.47) settled for silver and bronze respectively.

“This has been a very satisfying Games for me.

“Yes, to start with I was expecting to win three gold basically being a sprinter and not that confident in the other events,” Khade said later even as a Swimming Federation official confirmed that this is the best showing by an Indian swimmer in any international event.

“Yes, I am not really pleased with the timing in the 50m freestyle event,” he added.

“It is always a great feeling to win gold in front of home crowd. I owe a lot to their support. It really spurred me to give my best.”

Aaron D’Souza claimed the bronze in the 200m butterfly with a timing of 2.03.43 behind gold medallist Lachan Staples of Australia (1:58.67) and Van Vickers of England (2:01.88).

India’s Kyra Shroff will fight it out with Guerney’s Heather Watson for the girls’ singles title at the CYG 2008 tennis competition.

The Indian won a three-setter against Australia’s Monica Wejner.

India’s hope in the boys’ singles, Yuki Bhambri conceded his semifinals in the second set due to ill-health.

The results: