Indian swimmer Nataraj clocks 54:55 seconds to qualify for 100m backstroke final
Srihari Nataraj. Pic/AFP
Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj qualified for the finals of men’s 100m backstroke after clocking 54:55 seconds in the semi-final of the ongoing Commonwealth Games here.
Nataraj, 21, finished fourth in his heat and seventh overall to secure a berth in the medal round that will take place on Sunday.
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South African Pieter Coetze, however, was the fastest swimmer across both the semi-finals, clocking 53.67s on Day One of the competition.
The Bangalore swimmer will now set his sights on becoming only the second Indian swimmer to bag a medal in the Commonwealth Games since Prasanta Karmakar’s historic bronze in the para-swimming event at the Delhi CWG in 2010.
At the Tokyo Olympics last year, Nataraj had become the first Indian to swim in the classification A heat. The young swimmer had clocked 54:31s to finish 27th in the men’s 100m backstroke event.
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On Saturday, Kushagra Rawat finished last in his heat in the men’s 200m freestyle event.
Rawat clocked 1:54.56 seconds in Heat 3, which was won by Elijah Winnington of Australia with a timing of 1:46.87s.
South Africa’s Matthew Sates finished second and qualified for the final with a timing of 1:48.25s.
The top two from the eight-member field in Heat 3 qualified for the final. The other three finalists came from Heat 4 and Heat 5.
Earlier, in the men’s 400m freestyle heat, Rawat failed to advance to the semi-finals after clocking 3:57.45 to finish 14th overall. Sajan Prakash, too, missed out in the men’s 50m butterfly event as he finished eighth, clocking 25.01s.
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