Picture Credit: Twitter
The Swimming Federation of India (SFI) has announced a 36-member aquatic contingent for the upcoming Asian Games 2023, which will be held in Hangzhou, China, from September 23 to October 8. The selection was based on the performances of the swimmers at the recently concluded Senior National Aquatic Championship 2023 in Hyderabad.
The Indian swimming team consists of 12 men and eight women, who will compete in various events across freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and individual medley. The team also includes four Tokyo Olympians - Sajan Prakash, Srihari Nataraj, Maana Patel, and Virdhawal Khade - who will look to improve their timings and rankings at the continental level.
The other notable names in the team are Aryan Nehra and Lineysha AK, who emerged as the top performers at the national championship with six gold medals each. Nehra won the 200m, 400m, 800m, and 1500m freestyle events as well as the 200m and 400m individual medley events. Lineysha won the 50m, 100m, and 200m backstroke events as well as the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly events.
India squad:
Swimming
Men's: Aneesh Gowda, Advait Page, Aryan Nehra, Anand A S, Kushagra Rawat, Likith S P, Sajan Prakash, Srihari Nataraj, Tanish George Mathew, Utkarsh Patil, Vishal Grewal and Virdhawal Khade.
Women: Anannya Nayak, Dinidhi Desinghu, Hashika Ramachandran, Linyesh A K, Maana Patel, Nina Venkatesh, Palak Joshi, Shivangi Sarma, and Vritti Agarwal.
Diving
Men's: Siddharth Bajrang Pardeshi, Heman London Singh.
The federation has also announced a 13-member squad for the men’s water polo competition. However, SFI has not revealed the full details of the squad yet. The swimming events at the 2023 Asian Games will take place from September 24 to September 29 at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center.
