Khade finishes 4th in 50m freestyle after Beijing berth in Melbourne

New Delhi, Mar 30 (UNI) Maharashtra swimming prodigy Virdhawal Khade, who qualified for the Beijing Olympics 200m freestyle event earlier this week, finished fourth in 50m freestyle heat at the World Championships in Melbourne today.

The 15-year-old Kolhapur boy, who had also set a new national record in the 100m freestyle event, clocked 24.23 sec in heat number 15.

Another Indian Varun Divaikar stood seventh in heat number 16 with a time of 23.97 sec, according to information received here today.

Khade became the first Indian swimmer to qualify for next year's mega event in Beijing by winning 200m freestyle heat, clocking 1:52.41 though he finished 49th in the 177-swimmer field.

Later, he won 100m freestyle heat with a time of 51.46 sec, an improvement upon his own earlier record of 52.12 sec set at the Doha Asian Games last December. In the process, he became the first Indian to go under the 52-second barrier in the 100m freestyle, UNI