Tandon swims 100m freestyle in under 1 min

Karnataka's Shikha Tandon clocked a creditable 59.96 seconds to go below the one minute barrier in the 100 metres freestyle for women at the ninth FINA World swimming championships at Fukuoka, Japan, on Tuesday, according to reports.

Shikha is only the second Indian woman -- and the youngest at her age of 16 -- to go below the one-minute barrier in the prestigious sprint event.

She, however, finished 46th in a field of 61 top international women swimmers in the event, where her Bangalore-mate Reshma Millet, younger sister of the country's top woman swimmer Nisha Millet, timed one minute, 00.65 seconds to finish 49th.

Reshma had on Monday finished 38th in the 50 metres backstroke, clocking 32.97 seconds. Her personal best is a hand timing of 32.75 seconds, recorded in the recent junior nationals at Margao.