Indian poor show in pool continues

Melbourne, Mar 17 (UNI) The Indian swimming challenge continued to go under as Puneet Rana and Shikha Tandon finished way behind in their heats on the second day of the competition at the 18th Commonwealth Games here today.

Puneet finished seventh and last in the fifth heat of the men's 100m breaststoke, clocking 1:06.51 as compared to winner Australian Brenton Rickard's 1:01.28.

The 23-year-old engineering graduate will now compete in 50m Breaststroke.

In women's 100m backstroke third heat, Shikha clocked 1:08.52 for a sixth place among eight swimmers. The winner of the heat was Australian Sophie Edington in 1: 01.32.

This was a disappointing show by Olympian Shikha, who will now compete in 50m Backstroke and 50m Freestyle events.

In the EAD swimming 50m heats for women, India's Kanchanmala Pande was sixth and last in 42.40s. The winner was South African Natalie Du Toit in 29.32s.

Earlier in men's 200m Butterfly yesterday, both Arjun Muralidharan and Rehan Poncha came up with below-par shows that slammed the door on them.

In the high-voltage competition, 20-year-old Bangalore based Poncha finished fourth in the field of five swimmers with a below par timing of 2:08.72.

Same was the case with 19-year-old Muralidharan who was fifth in the six-member field in heat three after clocking 2:06.58.

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