Full list of new national records at Asian Games 2023

A total of 9 national records were broken at the Continental meet.

The Asian Games 2023 has ended on a high note with the India contingent winning a total of 107 medals (28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze). India also recorded the best-ever finish in the history of the Continental Games and became the 4th nation after China, Japan and Korea to finish over 100 medals in a single edition.

However, there have been some performances which may not have fetched a medal but the athletes did extremely well to break national records. Several NR have been achieved mainly in swimming and cycling. A total of nine national records have been broken - seven in swimming and two in cycling at the quadrennial extravaganza.

In athletics, Vithya Ramraj equaled the 41-year-old Indian national record of legendary PT Usha in women's 400m hurdles. She clocked 55.42s in the heats to equal the national record. The athlete from Tamil Nadu later went on to win the bronze medal in the final where she clocked 55.68s.

In this article let us look at the national record that was broken by the Indian contingent at the Asian Games 2023.

Swimming

Men's 4*100m Freestyle Relay

The men's 4*100 m freestyle relay team comprising of Srihari Natraj, Tanish Mathew, Anand Kumar and Vishal Grewal clocked 3:21:22 in the heats to break the earlier national record of 3:23:72 which was set in 2019 at Asian age group championships. They finished 5th in the heats and went on to clock 3:21:46 in the finals to finish 6th.

Men's 4*200m Freestyle Relay

The men's 4*200m freestyle relay which comprises Aryan Nehra, Aneesh Gowda, Kushagra Rawat and Tanish Mathew clocked 7:29:04 in the heats to break national record mark of 7:34:50 which was set in the 2014 Asian Games. They improved the 10-year-old national record by five seconds and clocked 7:29:33 in the finals to finish 7th.

Men's 4*100m Medley Relay

Men's 4*100m medley relay comprising of Srihari Natraj, S.P Likith, Sajan Prakash and Tanish Mathew clocked 3:40:84 in the heats to break the old national record of 3:44:94 which was set at the 2018 Asian Games. The same contingent once again broke the national record in the finals where they clocked 3:40:20 to finish a credible 5th position on the same day.

Women's 4*100m Freestyle Relay

The women's 4*100m freestyle relay comprising of Dhinidhi Desinghu, Maana Patel, Janhvi Choudhary, Shivangi Sarma clocked 3:53:80 in the heats to break the earlier national record of 4:00:76 which was set at the 2019 Asian Age Championships. They finished 6th in the heats and went on to clock 3:54:66 in the final to finish 7th.

Dhinidhi Desinghu, 13, was the youngest member in the overall swimming contingent.

Women's 4*200m Freestyle Relay

The women's 4*200m freestyle relay comprising og Dhinidhi Desinghu, Vritti Agarwal, Shivangi Sarma, and Hashika Ramachandra clocked 8:39:64 to break the old national record of 8:53:73 which was set at the 2019 Asian Age Championships. The quartet improved 14 seconds from the earlier national record and then later rewrote the national record again by clocking 8:37:58 in the finals.

Srihari Natraj

Srihari Natraj clocked 1:49:05 in men's 200m freestyle to finish 10th in the heats and in the process broke the old national record of 1:49:73 which was set by Sajan Prakash at the 2021 Settle Colli Trophy in Rome, Italy. Earlier, Srihari equaled the national record at the 2023 World University games and but finally broke the record here in Hangzhou, China.

Aryan Nehra

The young talented swimmer Aryan Nehra, rewrote the national record by clocking 15:20:9. The previous NR twas set by Advait Page in 15:23:66 at the 2021 Fran Crippen Swim Meet of Champions in the USA. He finished 7th in the finals but ensured a new national record was created.

Cycling

Men's 200m Time Trial

Youngster David Beckham broke the recently created national record by Ronaldo Singh at the Asian Games 2023. He clocked 9.807 (previous NR - 9.877) in the Round of 16 to finish 1st in the repechage. He defeated two Kazakhstan sprinter in his repechage round to qualify for the quarterfinals.

David who hails from Andaman and Nicobar Islands became the first Indian to qualify for the quarterfinals at Indoor wooden velodrome at Asian Games.

Men's Sprint Team

The men's sprint team comprising of Ronaldo Singh, Esow Alben, David Beckham and Rojit Singh broke the 4-year-old national record of 44.625 set at the junior world championships in 2019. The quartet clocked 44.609 in the round of 16 against Japan. However, despite clocking the national record they couldn't get past the East Asian side.