Asian Age Group Swimming C'ships: Virdhawal, Sajan, Srihari eye Olympic 'A' mark

The trio of Virdhawal Khade, Sajan Prakash and Srihari Nataraj will look to achieve the 'A' standard Olympic qualification mark when they spearhead the Indian challenge at the 10th Asian Age Group Swimming Championships, starting here on Tuesday.

All the three swimmer have made the 'B' cut in the recent months. While Virdhawal had achieved it in the 50m freestyle event at the Senior Swimming Nationals last month, Sajan did that in 200m butterfly at the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

Srihari clocked the Olympic 'B' qualification time in 100m backstroke at the FINA Junior World Championships last month.

Middle and long-distance freestyle swimmer Kushagra Rawat, sprinter Rujuta Khade, backstroker Maana Patel and middle-distance swimmer Shivani Kataria are expected to contribute to India's medal tally in the event.

A strong line-up in the Group I boys will see Tanish G Mathew lead the charge as he takes part in 50, 100, 200m butterfly. Hiten S Mittal, Sanjay CJ, Swadesh