Vedaant Madhavan sets national junior record at Junior National Aquatic Championships

Promising Indian swimmer Vedaant Madhavan made a new national record in the 1500m freestyle event at the ongoing 48th Junior National Aquatic Championships in Bhubaneswar on Sunday (July 18).

Proving his mettle, Vedaant shattered Advait Page's record of 16:06.43s from 2017 in the 1500m freestyle event. He clocked an impressive 16:01.73s to attain a gold medal finish at the swimming event.

Advait Page commented under actor R Madhavan's post (Vedaant's father), congratulating the swimmer for setting a new national record. Page wrote:

"Super happy for Vedaant. Congratulations!!"

Being the son or daughter of a celebrity always comes with its fair share of media attention. It's sometimes vexing to see R Madhavan's tweet getting more attention than the record holder himself - the reason for the tweets in the first place.

Vedaant's hard work and efforts in representing India cannot just be denied just because he hails from a renowned household. In an interview with DD India, Vedaant earlier said:

“I didn’t wanna live under my dad’s shadow. I wanted to make name for myself. I didn’t want to be just R Madhavan's son."

He added:

"I am really grateful for my family's support. They are always looking after me. They (parents) are always looking after me. Both put so much effort. One of the main sacrifices my parents made was to shift to Dubai."

At the end of day two, Karnataka led the medal tally with a total of 31 medals, followed by Maharashtra at 17 and Telangana at 8.

Vedaant clinched a gold medal in the men's 800m freestyle event back in April. The 16-year-old improved his personal best time by clocking 08:17.28 after dropping 11:48 seconds from his previous best timings.

The Indian swimmer also bettered his personal best time to clinch the silver medal in the men's 1500m freestyle event at the Danish Open swimming meet on April 15. Vedaant clocked 15.57.86 to finish second in the 10-swimmer final.

Twitter reacts as Vedaant Madhavan sets national junior record

Here are some of the reactions on Twitter to Vedaant setting a national junior record on Sunday: