Asian Aquatics 2025: Indian Swimmers Smash Records, Divers Win Historic Medal

Indian swimmers were at the top of their game at the Asian Aquatics Championships on Monday, with a number of them breaking records and divers winning a historic medal. The men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team broke the national record to bag silver at the tournament.

Aneesh S Gowda, Shoan Ganguly and Olympians Sajan Prakash and Srihari Nataraj surged past Malaysia in a thrilling final leg, finishing second behind China with a time of 7:23.38, missing the winners’ 7:21.05. Malaysia claimed bronze in 7:23.43.

In a brilliant display, Nataraj has claimed four medals till now at the ongoing continental meet at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex.

Two-time Olympian Nataraj kicked off India’s medal tally on Sunday, September 28, winning silver in the men’s

200m freestyle and 50m backstroke and contributing to a bronze in the men’s 4x100m medley relay.

The silver was among four medals India won on Monday, highlighted by a historic first in diving and two new national records.

Indian divers Indiver Sairam and Willson Sing Ningthoujam clinched bronze in the men’s 10m synchronised event on Monday, earning India’s first-ever diving medal at the Asian Aquatics Championships.

“Over the last six months, we’ve really focused on synchronised events, both platform and 3m springboard. We spent time in camps overseas, including Malaysia, and at the World Championships in Singapore, preparing them for this meet and the long-term goal of the Asian Games,” coach Shannon Roy was quoted as saying by Olympics.com.

Indian swimmers boosted their medal haul with Rishabh Das bagging bronze in the 200m backstroke and Kushagra Rawat taking bronze in the 1500m freestyle.

Rawat finished with a time of 15:30.88, while Vietnam’s Huy Hoang Nguyen took gold in 15:15.01, and Uzbekistan’s Ilya Sibirtsev claimed silver in 15:23.35.

Rishabh earned bronze in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:02.64, finishing behind China’s Gukailai Wang (1:59.78) and Japan’s Rui Yoshida (2:01.66).