Asian Aquatics Championships: India’s medal tally rises to seven; Sairem, Ningthoujam clinch historic bronze

Indiver Sairem and Willson Sing Ningthoujam became India’s first medallists in 10m men’s synchronised diving at the Asian Aquatics Championships, securing bronze on the second day of the tournament in Ahmedabad on Monday.

The result put India in strong contention to earn a berth for next year’s Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan.

Sairem (18) and Ningthoujam (32), both from Manipur, scored 300.66 points, finishing behind China’s pair of Zhangyu Cui and Zhanhong Xu (381.75) and Malaysia’s Bertrand Rhodict Lises and Enrique M. Harold (329.73).

Speaking about the medal-winning dive, the duo’s coach, Shannon Roy from Australia, said, “I’ve been working with them for the past two years, and honestly, they were quite behind the rest of the world and Asia.

“But over the last six months, we’ve really put a focus on the synchronised events, platform and 3m springboard events. We’ve spent a lot of time on a couple of camps overseas, in Malaysia, and at the World Championships in Singapore.”

In the swimming events, 12 Indians advanced to the finals of their respective races, and two relay teams also qualified.

Kushagra Rawat won bronze in the 1500m freestyle, finishing with a time of 15:30.88. Huy Hoang Nguyen of Vietnam clinched gold (15:15.01), and Ilya Sibirtsev of Uzbekistan won silver (15:23.35).

India’s men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team — comprising Aneesh Gowda, Sajan Prakash, Srihari Nataraj and Shoan Ganguly — secured silver with a national record of 7:23.38.

This was the fourth medal — and second in a team event — for Nataraj, who had won two individual silver medals — men’s 200m freestyle and 50m backstroke — and helped the 4x100m medley relay team to a bronze on the first day.

Rishabh Das added another medal to India’s tally with a bronze in the men’s 200m backstroke, clocking 2:02.64. He finished behind China’s Gukailai Wang (1:59.78) and Japan’s Rui Yoshida (2:01.66), while his compatriot Nithik Nathella finished fourth.

The Indian contingent, which has been based in Naranpura for the past month for a national coaching camp, has won seven medals so far (three silver and four bronze).

Over 1,100 swimmers, coaches and technical officials from 29 countries are in Ahmedabad for the marquee event in the Asian Aquatics calendar, which will serve as a qualifying event for the Asian Games to be held in Nagoya, Japan, next year.

(With inputs from PTI)

Published on Sep 29, 2025