Actor R Madhavan’s son Vedaant’s Asian Games debut in Aichi-Nagoya didn’t go as planned after the Indian men’s team failed to make it to the final of the 4x200m Freestyle Relay on Monday at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
The four-member Indian team comprising of Sajan Prakash, Dhakshan Shashikumar, , and Aneesh Sunil clocked 7:24.32s to finish ninth among the 13 nations in Heats. While Heat 1 comprised of seven nations, India came last among six nations in Heats 2.
Only the top eight nations advanced to the final of the event. Coming in as third in the relay, Veedant started at 450m mark and completed his first 50m in 27.61s. He took 28.88s and 28.40s to finish his second and third 50m distances respectively.
However, that’s not the end of road for Vedaant at the . He will next compete on September 23 in the men’s 200m Freestyle event, the Heats of which will be held in the morning.
Earlier, Vedaant took to Instagram to express his joy of representing India. “I am honored to announce that I will be representing India at the 20th Asian Games, with the swimming events being held in Tokyo, Japan,” he wrote. “Representing my country at the Asian Games has always been a lifelong dream of mine, and none of this would have been possible without the support of my family, friends, coaches, and everyone who has been a part of this journey. Proud to be wearing the tricolour. Jai Hind,” he added.
This is also Vedaant’s maiden Asian competition at a senior level, after starting professionally in 2018. Prior to the Asian Games, Vedaant won medals at Thailand Open, Asian Age Group Championships, Latvia Open, Danish Open and Malaysia Open.
In other notable results, Srihari Nataraj finished last in the 10-man 50m backstroke final, clocking 25.52s. Earlier in the Heats, Nataraj clocked 25.37s to finish third in Heat and joint ninth.
Meanwhile, another Indian in the fray in the same event, failed to qualify for the men’s 50m backstroke final was Rishabh Das, who clocked 25.41s and finished 11th overall. He was listed as a reserve.
Mani Akash and Gitesh Shah failed to qualify for the men’s 50m freestyle final while Dhanush Suresh missed out on the men’s 100m breaststroke final. Mani finished 26th overall in 23.43 seconds after topping his heat, while Shah clocked 23.57 seconds to finish 28th overall.
Dhanush also missed out on the final in the men’s 100m breaststroke. He finished eighth in his heat and 22nd overall with a time of 1:03.46.
