Swimming success: Ravi Budigina wins 100m backstroke silver, Himanshu Nandal wins 100m backstroke bronze at Para Asian Games

Indian swimmer Himanshu Nandal won his second bronze medal of the Asian Para Games after finishing third in the men’s 100m S11 backstroke in Nagoya on Wednesday.The 22-year-old from Rohtak, Haryana clocked 1:20.72 seconds. Nandal was completely visually impaired from birth due to failure of the optic nerve. China’s Yang Bozun won gold in a Games record time of 1:12.69, while Japan’s Keiichi Kimura took silver in 1:12.72.Nandal won his first medal on Tuesday when he finished third in the men’s S11 400m freestyle with a time of 5:10.91 in a field of four swimmers.Hailing from a family with a sporting background, Nandal drew inspiration from his father, who played hockey at the national level. At the age of four, he moved to Delhi and joined the National Association of the Blind, where he learned Braille.Nandal graduated in Political Science from Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, Delhi. He first took up judo and won medals at national level before switching to swimming in 2021.In 2024, he became the first Indian blind swimmer to achieve the minimum qualification standard for the Paris Paralympics.The S11 classification in para swimming is for athletes with severe visual impairment, including those with very low visual acuity or no light perception.

Ravi Budigina gets the second silver

Ravi Budigina won his second silver medal of the Asian Para Games when he finished second in the men’s 100m breaststroke S13 final in 1:10.10.Uzbekistan’s Egor Bolotov won gold in an Asian record time of 58.43 seconds, finishing 11.67 seconds ahead of Budigina.Budigina won silver in the S13 men’s 100m freestyle event on Monday.The S13 classification is intended for visually impaired athletes who have the least amount of vision loss among athletes eligible to participate in a Paralympic sport.

Rohit Kumar won bronze in men’s 100m breaststroke SB4 final

Rohit Kumar won the bronze medal in the men’s SB4 100m breaststroke final in 1:57.25. The Indian was fourth in the 50m, just behind Hussain Al-Rashid of Saudi Arabia, but managed to secure the bronze by 1.17 seconds.Rohit never contested the gold, which was won by Malaysia’s Muhammad Bin Zulkafli in a Games record 1:41.44.