Singapore Swimming C’ship: Nataraj, Ambre, Gowda bag gold

SINGAPORE, June 23:

Tokyo Olympian duo of Srihari Nataraj and Maana Patel claimed a gold and a silver each as India won five medals on day one of the Singapore National Swimming Championships here on Thursday.
The promising Mihir Ambre won the 50m butterfly while Aneesh Gowda won the 800m freestyle as the Indians bagged three gold on day one of the exposure competition ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
Siva Sridhar settled for a third-place finish in the 100m backstroke with a timing of 57.58 seconds as the Indian swimmers won three gold, one silver and one bronze on the day.
The youngest Indian swimmer to have made the Olympic Standard Time, Nataraj made a splash in the 100m backstroke event when he started strongly en route to winning the gold with a timing of 55.32 seconds.
In the women’s 100m backstroke, Maana clocked 1:04.47s to clinch silver.
Ambre won the 50m butterfly with a personal best timing of 24.66s while Gowda reigned supreme in the gruelling 800m freestyle with a timing of 8:14.08s. (PTI)