Khade made up for his disappointing fourth-place finish in 50m freestyle Monday by clocking 24.31 seconds for a third-place finish at the Aoti Aquatics Centre. China's Jiawei Zhou (23.66 secs) won the gold while the silver went to Japan's Masayuki Kishida (24.13 secs).

Khade's medal is India's first in the sport after Khazan Singh won a silver at the 1986 Seoul edition.

The only Indian swimmer to win a gold medal so far is Sachin Nag in the 100 meters freestyle at the inaugural Asian Games in Delhi in 1951. The 19-year-old Khade earlier topped the heats (24.56secs) to storm into the medal round.

Khade missed out on 50m freestyle bronze by just 0.03 secs Monday as he admitted of making a mistake by reaching out for the board with his right hand.

"It feels great to win a medal for India after 24 years. I was desperate to win this medal after missing the bronze Monday," an elated Khade said minutes after the medal ceremony.

"Obviously a silver or gold would have made me feel better, because I know I can come at the top of this field. The start is a problem for me and I am working on it."

"It is very difficult to catch up if you make a bad start in 50 meters," he said.

It definitely is a big thing. This is a start for me. You see I'm much younger than these two guys here, I have a longer future than I think they do. "But you have to keep going, because India is not a country that supports swimming. They like other sports like cricket so it is hard to say how much longer I can go.

"If I start making big money in swimming then I will keep going. I have a family to support, but I think I can keep winning and go faster."