Virdhawal Khade

Mumbai: India’s Virdhawal Khade is being hailed as the swimming sensation in the medal starved country after the 16-year-old qualified for three events at the Beijing Olympics.

The schoolboy achieved the 200 metres freestyle mark at the world championships in Melbourne last year when he became the youngest Indian to do so at the age of 15.

Earlier this month also, he added the 50m and 100m, raising hopes in some quarters of boosting India’s minuscule Olympic tally, if not in 2008 then in 2012 at the London Games.

“It is a great opportunity to race against swimmers of my age and I am positive of winning a few medals,” Khade said.

India have only won four individual medals, none of them gold, in their Olympic history since sending their first team to the Summer Games in 1928.

Hopes for Beijing have been badly hit when the men’s hockey team failed to qualify for the first time in the Olympics history.

Khade’s personal bests compare well with swimmers of his own age though it fell a couple of seconds shy of world record marks.

But his coach, Nihar Ameen said “In terms of natural talent, he is a prodigy against any swimmer in his age group that I have seen around the world.”

The son of a sugar businessman from Kolhapur in Maharashtra, Virdhawal took to the pool as a four-year-old in his hometown.

In 2006 he shifted to Ameen’s centre in Bangalore after the coach spotted his talent at a national competition.

In Beijing, Sandeep Sejwal and Ankur Poseria, who study and train in the US, would join Khade in the Indian team.