Sindhu struggles, Saina has it easy

While Saina swept aside Soraya Aghaeihajiagha of Iran 21-7 21-9 in less than half an hour, Sindhu snatched a 21-10 12-21 23-21 victory from the jaws of defeat against Vietnam’s Thi Trang Vu. Saina was utterly dominant from the word go and gave her opponent no room to fashion any sort of chance. 

Sindhu on the other hand breezed past Vu in the first game where the gulf in class between the two players was clearly visible. 

Virdhawal Khade and Srihari Natraj created new national records to qualify for the finals of the 50m butterfly and 200m backstroke events but failed in the medal round at the Asian Games.

Khade clocked 24.09sec to top Heat 2 and was placed fifth overall. The effort was better than his own nine-year old national record which was set with a time of 24.14 at the Asian Championship at Foshan, China in 2009. Khade has created two national records at this edition of the Games as he had bettered his own mark in the men’s 50m freestyle. He finished last in the final in 50m butterfly. 

In 200m backstroke event, Natraj moved to the final by improving upon his own national mark with a timing of 2:02.97 which placed him seventh overall. It was better than his previous 2:03.17 mark. He came sixth in the medal round.