New Delhi: Para swimmer Niranjan Mukundan broke a 16-year-old Asian record en route to his 1500 freestyle gold in the S7 category on Friday at the Norwegian Swimming Championships 2023, popularly known as Bergen Swim Festival.
A resident of Bangalore, Mukundan was the only participant in the event category and clocked 21.47.18s. He broke previous record of 22:01:22s that was created by Jumpei Kimura of Japan in the year 2007.
Not only 1500m freestyle gold, Mukundan also won gold in 50m backstroke and bronze in 100m freestyle event on the day. Earlier in the year, Mukundan had et a new national record in men’s 200m individual medley at the Para Swimming World Series in Sheffield, Great Britain.
The 28-year-old had clocked an impressive 2:56.03s in the fourth heat in the SM7 category.
For the unknown, Mukundan was born with spina bifida (a condition that affects the spine and is usually apparent at birth) and had already underwent 19 surgeries. But that didn’t stop him from flying the Indian flag high.
By the age of 18, Mukundan won his first international medal and seven years later, he became the first Indian para-swimmer to bag 50 global medals for the country. He was also crowned the Junior World Champion in 2015.
