Asian Games: Khade enters 50m butterfly finals

Virdhawal Khade was once again the lone Indian swimmer to create a splash in the pool, qualifying for the men's 50m butterfly event even as the rest of his compatriots continued to disappoint at the Asian Games in Guangzhou on Tuesday.

Khade topped his heat by clocking 24.56sec, which was the fifth best timing among the eight who eventually made the finals scheduled for Tuesday evening.

The 19-year-old's timing was, however, not even his personal best of 24.25sec he managed at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune in 2008.

Also in 50m butterfly, Anshul Kothari came out on top in his heat with a timing 26.08sec but it was just not enough for him to register a place in the final eight.

The flop-show continued in other events with Rehan Poncha and M Badrinath finishing sixth and seventh respectively in the men's 100m backstroke event.

While Poncha clocked 59.38sec, Badrinath managed a timing of 59.62sec.

In the men's 4x100m freestyle relay, the Indian team of Aaron Agnel D'Souza, Arjun Jayaprakash, Anshul Kothari and Khade finished fourth in the heats with a timing of 3:29.71secs. The effort could only fetch them a place in the back-up list for the finals.

In the men's 400m freestyle, Divase Mandar ended seventh in his heats after clocking 4:08.22sec.