Actor R Madhavan's son Vedaant Madhavan improved his personal best time to bag the silver medal in the men's 1500m freestyle event at the Danish Open 2022 swimming competition on Friday night held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Vedaant clocked 15.57.86 to finish second in the 10-swimmer final. (More Sports News)
Top Indian swimmer Sajan Prakash also began his season on a winning note by clinching the men's 200m butterfly gold. Competing in his first international meet this year, Prakash stopped the clock at 1.59.27 to stand atop the podium on Friday night.
The 16-year-old, Vedaant, who had won a bronze medal at the Latvia Open in March 2021, had also impressed at the Junior National Aquatic Championships last year, bagging seven medals -- four silver and three bronze.
Sharing a video clip from the felicitation ceremony on his Instagram handle, the 51-year-old actor thanked his son's coach Pradeep Kumar and the swimming federation of India for their support.
"@vedaantmadhavan wins Silver for India at the Danish Open in Copenhagen. Thank you so much Pradeep sir, #swimmingfederationofindia, and #ansadxb for all your efforts. We are so proud,” he captioned the post.
Prakash, who trains in Dubai under coach Pradeep Kumar, had clocked 2.03.67 in the heats to qualify for the 'A' final. However, Friday's performance was not even close to the 28-year-old's personal best timing of 1:56:38 that came last year in Rome, when Prakash become the first Indian swimmer to breach the Olympic 'A' standard time.
“We have some competitions coming up this month. It (Denmark Open) is a preparation meet, we will slowly try to peak towards the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games,” Prakash, a two-time Olympian, told PTI.
Shakthi Balakrishnan finished second in the 'B' Final and eight overall in the women's 400m medley with a timing of 5:10:71. The fourth Indian swimmer competing at the meet, Tanish George Mathew finished 29th in 50m freestyle heats with a timing of 24:29.
