Daijiworld Media Network-Puttur
Puttur, Oct 19: Ace swimmer Vaishnav Hedge from Puttur Aquatic Club won the gold medal for India in 50 metre breaststroke at South Asian Aquatic Championship (SAAC) in Colombo on Wednesday, October 19.
The SAAC swimming championship has top swimmers competing from SAARC nations.
Vaishnav clocked 29.31 to clinch the gold. The second place was also bagged by Indian Jashandeep Singh who clocked 29.60. Sri Lankan swimmer Kiran Jayasinghe ended third.
Vaishnav had earlier qualified for this event by winning silver in 70th Glenmark national swimming championship held in Ranchi last month.
Vaishnav is also the youngest among other 10 swimmers from India who met the qualifying standards for Asian Swimming championship to be held in Tokyo in November.
He will be swimming with the likes of Dmitriy Balandin who is the gold medallist from 2016 Rio Olympics in 200 m breaststroke.
Vaishnav trains with Puttur Aquatic Club and Balavana swimming pool Puttur. He is coached by Partha Varanashi, Niroop GR and Vasanth Kumar. He also trains at Muliya Fitness with Naveen K and his dietician is Shona.
Vaishnav is also the youngest swimmer with third highest FINA points (world swim ranking point system) in India with 766 points for his 50 m breaststroke at national championship.
He obtained this by clocking 29.14 in the heats. Olympian Sandeep Sejwal (830) and Olympian Sajan Prakash (815) are the only two ahead of him.