Sport - Afro-Asian Games   

Sofiane Daid makes a big splash

HYDERABAD OCT. 25. Algerian swimmer Sofiane Daid came up with a sterling performance on the opening day of the Afro-Asian Games swimming competition in the Swarnandhra Pradesh Sports Complex swimming pool in Gachibowli here today.

The 21-year-old Sofiane won the 400 m individual medley race with a timing of 4:39.89. Senegal's Malick Fall (4:44.17) settled for silver while, for the hosts Rehan Poncha picked the bronze with a timing of 4:45.71.

Later, the dazzling Algerian swimmer played the lead role in guiding his team to gold in the 4 x 200 m relay freestyle timing 7:57.82. Quite surprisingly, there was an announcement that the team fielded was South Africa but as a matter of fact the squad had three Algerians — Sofiane, Mahrez Mebarek and Slimani Aghiles only one South African Nicholas Wilson. Officially, it is still deemed as South African squad.

Indian relay squad of Akbar Mir Ali, Sri Nandsrinivas, Rahul Batra and Amar Muralidharan picked the silver while Uzbekistan's Vasilev Petr, Agafonov Alexandar, Puhnatiy Oleg, Irgashev Timvr settled for bronze.

In women's 50 m free-style, Shikha Tandon of India delighted the home crowd with a silver-medal winning performance (0:26.50) behind the gold medallist Zhong Ziaowei of China (0:26.20) while, Japan's Atsumi Yamada picked the bronze.

Shikha silver effort was good enough to book a berth for the Athens Olympics next year, according to official sources who confirmed this late in the evening. The qualifying mark was 26.92 as decided by the international body FINA.

Ironically, according to Chinese officials, the best of their swimmers preferred to take part in the Inter-city competition to these Games and Zhong would not have made it had the cream come here. But, Zhong, winner of 2001 World Cup championship gold, showed enough grit and determination to prove the critics wrong.

India's star swimmer Richa Misra also settled for silver in the 400 m individual medley race with a timing of 5:10.99 behind Korean gold medallist Lee Sun (5:8.87). Algerian Faiza Sabria Dahane (5:11.70) got the bronze.

For the Indians, it was a quite creditable day as they picked three silver and two bronze on the first day.

The results: 50 m freestyle: Men: 1. Nachaev Ravil (Uzbekistan) 0:23.63, 2. Than Zuo (China) 0:23.70, 3. Musa Bakare (Nigeria) 0:23.87; Women: 1. Zhong Xiaowei (China) 0:26.20, 2. Shika Tandon (India) 0:26.50, 3. Atsumi Yamada (Japan) 0:26.79.

400 m individual medley: Men: 1. Sofiane Daid (Algeria) 4:39.89, 2. Malick Fall (Senegal) 4:44.17, 3. Rehan Poncha (India) 4:45.71; Women: 1. Lee Sun (Korea) 5:8.87, 2. Richa Misra (India) 5:10.99, 3. Faiza Sabria Dahane (Algeria) 5:11.70.

4 x 200 m relay freestyle: Men: 1. South Africa 7:57.82, 2. India 8:9.57, 3. Uzbekistan 8:14.50; Women: 1. China 8:39.35, 2. South Africa 8:58.06, 3. India 9:9.80.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

Cricket

• Cracker of a contest in store
• A disciplined approach needed from Indian bowlers
  
  Afro-Asian Games
  
• Pomp and pageantry mark birth of Afro Asian Games
• Nigeria dominates on opening day
• Uzbekistan grabs full points
• Sofiane Daid makes a big splash
• Qamar paves the way as Asians call the shots
• India struggles to beat Nigeria
• All eyes on the shooting range
• India, Nigeria in men's final
  
  Badminton
  
• Aparna lives up to expectations
  
  Billiards & Snooker
  
• Pankaj Advani's Diwali gift to Nation
  
  Chess
  
• Topalov, Svidler start well
  
  Golf
  
• Vikramjit clinches title
  
  

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu