India’s Ramananda Sharma won the host nation’s first gold medal in diving at the on-going 10th Asian Age Group Championships being held at Sports Authority of India, Bengaluru.

The 21-year-old secured 300.80 points in the 1 metre spring board event for open category men to win the yellow metal while his compatriot Siddharth Pradeshi bagged the bronze with a total of 272.25 points. Valipour Mojtaba of Iran took home the silver medal.

Indian divers also added three silver medals to India’s totally tally of 52 medals won so far. Sharma had won 1 gold and 1 silver in the previous edition of Asian Age Group Championships held in Uzbekistan while Pradeshi had won 3 gold medals.

“It’s extremely exciting to participate and win in front of our home crowd. We have been training under Cuban coach Salazar Despaigne. We have improved tremendously under him and we are confident of a good show here,” stated Sharma.

In the 3m synchronised diving for men (group A and B combined), Satish Kumar Parjapati and N Willson Singh bagged a silver medal with a total score of 217.26 ahead of Thailand’s Thitipoom Maskin and Conrad Yoseph who scored 216.75. Yang Ling and Zhu Yongxin of China won gold in this event.

Palak Sharma of India won silver in 1m spring board for girls group C with total points of 186.70 points while Sudirman Nur Nufidah of Indonesia bagged the gold and Wai Ki Chan Hong Kong won bronze. In the same event for group C boys, Invider Sairem of India won silver with total points of 269.45 while Sugimoto Ruon of Japan won gold (274.65 points) and Jamshidi Mohammad of Iran (232.70) won bronze.

Meanwhile, artistic swimming began today with over 130 participants from nine countries enthralling the audience with mesmerising performances.

The country taking part in artistic swimming include China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Japan and Philippines.