Virdhawal Khade scripted history on Tuesday as he became the first Indian swimmer in 24 years to clinch an Asian Games medal by notching up a bronze in the 50m butterfly event in Guangzhou.

Khade, who topped his heat by clocking 24.56sec, finished third in the finals with a timing of 24.31sec.

Khazan Singh was the last Indian swimmer to win a medal at the Asian Games when he clinched the 100m freestyle silver in the 1986 Seoul edition.

"I am very happy to have won a medal for India after 24 years. I wanted to win after missing the bronze yesterday. It would have been better had it been a silver or a gold," Khade, who finished fourth in the 50m freestyle finals just 0.03 seconds behind the bronze-medallist, said.

Photographs: Reuters

India suffered a 0-5 drubbing at the hands of title contenders Japan to crash out of the football competition after qualifying for the knockout phase after a long wait of 28 years.

India, who made it to the round of 16 after defeating Singapore 4-1 in their last group match, were no match to their formidable opponents who have won all their earlier matches and have not conceded any goal so far in the tournament.

Japan completely dominated the match with overwhelmingly  better ball possession, superiority in skill and speed and scored through highly-rated young striker Kensuke Nagai (17th and 51st), Ryuohei Yamazaki (27th), Yamamura Kazuya (45th) and Mizinuma Kota (63rd).

Japan, who led 3-0 at half time, had as many as 19 shots at the opposition goal of which 13 were on target.

India had just three shots at the Japanese goal in the entire match of which only one was on target.

While Khade won the bronze medal, the other Indian swimmers in the fray disappointed.

The flop-show continued in other events with Rehan Poncha and M Badrinath finishing sixth and seventh respectively in the men's 100m backstroke event.

While Poncha clocked 59.38sec, Badrinath managed a timing of 59.62sec.

In the men's 4x100m freestyle relay, the Indian team of Aaron Agnel Dsouza, Arjun Jayaprakash, Anshul Kothari and Khade finished fourth in the heats with a timing of 3:29.71secs.

The effort could only fetch them a place in the back-up list for the finals. In men's 400m freestyle, Divase Mandar ended seventh in his heats after clocking 4:08.22sec.

Japan's Ryosuke Irie completed a golden double with a victory in the men's 100m backstroke event with a time of 53.61.

Irie had earlier won the 200m event to bag his first gold medal at the Asian Games.

World champions China continued their domination by winning the gold medal in the women's 4x200m Freestyle Relay.

The hosts were in a class of their own as they timed seven minutes and 51.81 seconds, with Japan a distant second in 7:55.92 for the silver.

South Korea finished with the bronze medal in 8:07.78.

Ashish Kumar made it a memorable day for Indian sports when he became the first Indian gymnast to clinch an Asian Games medal by securing a bronze in the men's floor event of the Artistic Gymnastics.

Kumar clinched the bronze with an aggregate of 14.92 behind gold medallists Chenglong Zhang of China and South Korean Soo Myun Kim, who finished at an identical scoreline of 15.40.

In the first round, Kumar scored 6.30 points while in the final round, the Indian managed to accumulate 8.62 to finish third in the event.