Khade sets new national record in 50m Freestyle

Monterrey, Mexico, Jul 11 (UNI) Promising Virdhawal Khade set up yet another national record - third in as many days - as he clocked 22.69 sec in the 50m Freestyle on the third day of the second FINA World Youth Swimming Championships here.

In the semi-finals of the event, Virdhawal swam a blistering race clocking a personal best time of 22.69sec bettering the previous national record by 0.2 seconds held by Olympian Sebastian Xavier since 1998.

His time is also faster than the previous meet record time of 22.74sec.

Virdhawal, is currently seeded number two going in to the finals to be held tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the final is expected to be a extremely close race and Virdhawal is eagerly looking forward to it.

Virdhawal now holds five National Records 50, 100, 200 and 400m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly.

Earlier on day one, the 17-year-old from Kolhapur clocked a time of 50.64sec while swimming the first leg of the 4x100m Freestyle relay.

The earlier National Record of 50.66sec, which was also held by Virdhawal, was set at the Malaysia Open in May.

The relay team consisting of Virdhawal Khade, Sandeep Nagaranthal, Ashwin Menon and Aaron D'souza eventually finished at the 17th spot.

On the second day, Khade went on to become the first-ever Indian swimmer to reach the finals of the World Youth Swimming Championships with a time of 1:50.35sec.

His time was faster than the previous World Youth record time of 1:51.97sec.

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