By IANS
Macau : Sandeep Sejwal won India’s first medal outside of chess, when he finished second in the men’s 100 metres breaststroke final at the second Asian Indoor Games at the Macau Olympic Aquatic Centre.
All of India’s other medals, three golds and a silver, have come from chess.
Sejwal clocked one minute 1.99 seconds Tuesday. The gold medal went to Wang Wei Wen of Taiwan, who timed 1:01.78. Yevgeny Ryzkhov of Kazhakstan, who clocked 1:02.07, took the bronze.
Sejwal had qualified for the final by clocking 1:03.50 in a slow heat where he was third, but in the final, he shifted gears to grab the silver.
The 18-year-old Indian, a student of Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College, first hit the spotlight when he won a gold medal at the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games in Colombo last August. He has been India’s leading breaststroke and backstroke swimmer.
He had also won at the Asian Age Group swimming championships in Jakarta last year.
In other events, Shikha Tandon, with a time 26.22 seconds, finished fifth in 50m freestyle for women. The event was won by Binan Wu of China in 25.68s. Shikha timed 26.43s for a second place in the heats to qualify for the final.
Richa Mishra also finished in the 200m individual medley for women, clocking 2:22.55. Sherry Hui Wai Tsai of Hong Kong won the event in 2:13.95.
In the men’s 200m individual medley, Rehan Poncha, clocking 2:04.23, finished fifth. The gold went to Radomyos Matjuir of Thailand in 2:01.35.