The 19 -year -old swimmer took a time of 24.00 seconds to finish 12th in total and qualified for the semi -finals. In this way, he surpassed the seven -year -old 24.09 second national record created by Olympian Veeradhawal Khade in 2018. The performance is another milestone in Rohit’s fast growing career – last month, he broke the 100m butterfly record of Ghade at the National Aquatics Championship in Bhubaneswar in 52.57 seconds.
Rohit was the only Indian swimmer to move forward in the next round on the first day. Despite the struggle of swimmers and other athletes, the Indian badminton team made a brilliant debut in the mixed team event and defeated Macau 5–0 in their first match of Group F.
The men’s doubles pair of Setan Dayanand and Satish Kumar Karunakaran started the match by defeating Chi Chon Pui and Coke Veng Wing in straight games. After this, Devika Sihag registered a stunning victory over Chi Va Pui in the women’s singles. Sneet returned to the singles match and defeated Fai Long 2–0, while Tasnim Mir and Warshini Vishwanath’s women’s doubles team easily defeated Sam Kio Iyyong and Y Kai Wang. In the mixed doubles match, Karunakaran, along with Vaishnavi Khadkekar, won by defeating the Macau pair of Coke Veng Wong and Chi Va Pui. The only other team in Group F is Hong Kong China, which will lead to India’s next match.
India’s fencing campaign had limited success, Abhay Shinde was the only Indian swordsman to reach the knockout stage in his class, but lost 13–15 to the Spain’s representative in the Round of 64. In the women’s AP event, Mitwa Chaudhary lost 11–15 to Alexandra Zitel of Germany in the Round of 32, while the rest of the Indian swords failed to make it to the knockout. In Taekwondo, the mixed pair of Yash Malinda and Ritu Yadav fell out of their Chinese rivals 8.932–8.433 in the Pumse Round of 16.
It was a difficult day on the tennis court, in which Kabir Hans Male lost 2-6, 6–4, 4-6 to Uzbekistan’s Maxim Shin in a tough match. Shashank Macherla suffered a crushing defeat 0-6, 1-6 at the hands of Luka Steheli of Switzerland. The Indian women’s volleyball team suffered a second consecutive defeat, this time she lost 15-25, 13–25, 15-25 in straight sets from a strong Poland team.
With two defeats, his hopes of reaching the next round have reduced significantly. Male and women table tennis teams will start their campaign in the day today. The women’s team will take on Romania in Group 5, while the men’s team will play from Japan in Group 3.
