Bangalore October 6, 2010: Top ranked Indian para-swimmer Prasanta Karmakar rewrote history by winning a bronze medal in the 50m freestyle S9 category of the Commonwealth Games at the S.P. Mukherjee Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday.
With this win, Prasanta became the first Indian ever to win a medal in aquatics at the Commonwealth Games. He was also the first Indian to win a medal in aquatics at a major competition, since Khajan Singh at the 1986 Asian Games.
Starting the finals with the fourth fastest time, Prasanta pulled off a spectacular performance finishing with a personal best time of 27.48 seconds, creating a new National record in the process.
Prasanta finished 2.15 seconds shy of first placed Australian, Matthew Cowdrey and 0.78 seconds short of second placed Simon Miller. However the real challenge for Prasanta was to hold off expected medal winner Benjamin Austin, who pushed him all the way leading to a nail-biting finish. Thanks to a perfect start Prasanta held his nerve and managed to stay ahead by out-swimming the mighty Australian. His perfect rhythm in the pool bagged him the Bronze medal and this achievement will definitely be considered the biggest result for India on Day-3 of the Delhi Commonwealth Games.
Press release from GoSports Foundation
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