Danish Open: Sajan Prakash begins season with 200m butterfly gold; Vedaant Madhavan wins 1500m freestyle silver

New Delhi: Top Indian swimmer Sajan Prakash began his season on a winning note by clinching the men’s 200m butterfly gold at the Danish Open swimming meet in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Competing in his first international meet this year, Prakash stopped the clock at 1.59.27 to stand atop the podium on Friday night.

Earlier, the Kerala swimmer, who trains in Dubai under coach Pradeep Kumar, had clocked 2.03.67 in the heats to qualify for the ‘A’ final.

However, Friday’s performance was not even close to the 28-year-old’s personal best timing of 1:56:38 that came last year in Rome, when Prakash become the first Indian swimmer to breach the Olympic ‘A’ standard time.

“We have some competitions coming up this month. It (Denmark Open) is a preparation meet, we will slowly try to peak towards the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, Prakash, a two-time Olympian, told PTI.

Teenager Vedaant Madhavan also began on a positive note as he improved his personal best time to bag the silver medal in the men’s 1500m freestyle event.

Danish Open 2022 Day 1
Congratulations!!
Sajan Prakash 1.59.27. Gold 200 Fly
Vedant Madhvan 15.57.86. PB Silver 1500Free @Media_SAI @DGSAI @sports_odisha pic.twitter.com/FxC4BnLIsw

— @swimmingfederationofindia (@swimmingfedera1) April 15, 2022

Vedaant, son of Indian actor R Madhavan, clocked 15.57.86 to finish second in the 10-swimmer final.

The 16-year-old, who had won a bronze medal at the Latvia Open in March 2021, had also impressed at the Junior National Aquatic Championships last year, bagging seven medals — four silver and three bronze.

Shakthi Balakrishnan finished second in the ‘B’ Final and eight overall in the women’s 400m medley with a timing of 5:10:71.

The fourth Indian swimmer competing at the meet, Tanish George Mathew finished 29th in 50m freestyle heats with a timing of 24:29.

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