India's swimmers Rehan Poncha and Arjun Murlidharan sank without a trace and failed to qualify for the finals in their respective categories in the Asian Games in Doha on Saturday.
In the 400m individual medley, 23-year old Bangalore-based Rehan finished fifth in the six swimmer-field in heat number three.
Rehan, whose personal best in this event is 4:37.04, was placed in lane two and clocked a dismal 4:40.69 to be just ahead of the last finisher Saeed Malekae of Iran who timed 4:45.13.
The Indian swimmer lagged behind from the start timing 29.38 in his first 50m. His next timing when reaching 100m was 1:02.39 (33.01 in this 50 meters) and then there was progressive decline in his speed and he clocked uneven timings 36.42, 35.10, 41.22, 41.32, 32.72 and 31.52 in his next six blocks of 50 m each.
Japan's Hidemasa topped the heat with 4:25.21 and Rehan was 15.48 sec behind him in a walloping trail.
In the men's 200m butterfly, Murlidharan timed 2:07.96 to finish fifth in the eight swimmer-field. The 19-year Indian champion, whose personal best is 2:04.56, was 10.31 seconds behind the leader Japan's Ryuichi Shibata.
Rehan later said he was happy with his performance.
"I am happy. Winning a medal is tough because China and Japan are world class swimmers. But I expect to come in the top eight," Rehan said.
He admitted that he had trained hard for this competition.
"We trained very hard so I wish I had won," he said.
