Swimming-Frustrated with France, Arkhangelskiy savours Asian Games gold for adopted Bahrain

A son of political refugees who fled ​Russia for France, swimmer Michel Arkhangelskiy, travelled a ​long road to finally clinch his first ‌major title ​at the Asian Games under the flag of Bahrain.

The 21-year-old won the 50-metre butterfly gold on Thursday at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in a time of 22.91 seconds, ‌matching exactly his Asian record set in France in June. Bahrain was never Arkhangelskiy's first choice as a nation to represent in his sport, but neither was Russia.

"If I go back to Russia, I'll be arrested because my family are political opponents," said Arkhangelskiy, ‌now a college swimmer for the University of California, Berkeley. As a non-citizen, Arkhangelskiyfound France was also not an option ‌despite living in the country for some 16 years.

"I was waiting for a long time and at one point I was just disappointed," he said. "I was pissed off about all this, all the politics, because you know it's quite difficult to be the son of a political refugee."

Bahrain, however, welcomed ⁠him with ​open arms as it has ⁠for plenty of top athletes born overseas. Choosing the Gulf nation is not such a surprise, said the swimmer, whose father was born in Kazakhstan while ⁠his mother grew up in an Asian part of Russia.

It's been win-win for country and athlete, with Bahrain providing a high level of ​support and Arkhangelskiy winning the country its first Asian Games swimming title. Arkhangelskiy declined to provide details on the ⁠nature of his sponsorship from Bahrain but said he liked how the country was invested in swimming.

"I have all the best conditions to swim for ... everything ⁠is ​covered so I'm in the best condition to perform - as you see with the Asian Games gold medal," he said. A host of other imported athletes are competing at the Games for Bahrain, including Kenyan-born track runner Winfred Yavi, the ⁠Olympic 3,000m steeplechase champion, and much of their wrestling team.

Russian-born mixed martial arts fighter Diana Pogosian won the silver medal ⁠for Bahrain in the women's ⁠54kg modern category earlier in the week, and said it was a no-brainer to compete for the Gulf nation. "Well, I wasn't going to win a gold medal for Russia at an ‌Asian Games," she ‌told Reuters.