WUG: Indian shuttlers get past Macau; Rohit Benedicton erases 50m butterfly national record

New Delhi, Jul 17 (PTI) Indian shuttlers thrashed Macau 5-0 in the mixed team event, while teenage swimmer Rohit Benedicton smashed the seven-year-old national record in the men's 50m butterfly on an otherwise disappointing opening day of the World University Games in the Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany on Thursday.

Indian badminton players blanked Macau in their opeing Group F match with the men's doubles pair of Saneeth Dayanand and Sathish Kumar Karunakaran winning in straight games against Chi Chon Pui and Kok Weng Ving.

Women's singles player Devika Sihag defeated Chi Wa Pui, while Saneeth came back to defeat Fei Long 2-0. The Indian women's doubles pair of Tasnim Mir and Varshini Viswanath beat the duo of Sam Kio Ieong and Wai Kei Wang, while the mixed team of Karunakaran and Vaishnavi Khadkekar overcame Kok Weng Vong and Chi Wa Pui.

The third team in the group is Hong Kong China.

The highlight of the day was young swimmer Rohit, who broke the seven-year-old national record of Virdhawal Khade with a time of 24:00 seconds as he finished 12th overall to qualify for the semifinals. Khade had timed 24:09 seconds in 2018.

Last month, at the national aquatics championships in Bhubaneswar, Rohit had clinched the 100m butterfly gold by clocking 52.57, thus breaking Khade's record of 52.79 seconds.

Rohit, 19, was the only Indian swimmer on day 1 to progress to the next round.

In fencing (men's sabre), Abhay Shinde was the only Indian to make it to the knockout rounds, before he lost to a Spanish opponent 13-15 in the round of 64.

In women's epee event, Mitva Chaudhari lost in the round-of-32 to Germany's Alexandra Zittel 11-15.

All other Indians could not make the knockouts.

The women's volleyball team suffered their second straight defeat, this time against Poland 15-25 13-25 15-25 as their chances of making it to the next round dimmed.

In taekwondo mixed pairs poomsae event, the Indian duo of Yash Malinda and Ritu Yadav lost the round-of-16 contest to China 8.932-8.433.

There was disappointment on the tennis courts, with Kabir Hans losing his men's singles preliminary-round match to Uzbekistan's Maksim Shin 2-6 6-4 4-6, while Shashank Macherla was beaten by Switzerland's Luca Staheli 0-6 1-6.

The women's table tennis team will take on Romania in Group 5, while the men will play Japan in Group 3 opener later in the day. PTI AM AM SSC SSC