Sajan Prakash out of 200m freestyle finals at Commonwealth Games

Veteran Indian swimmer Sajan Prakash failed to qualify for the men's 200 m freestyle final at the Commonwealth Games finishing fifth in his heat and 20th overall in the competition on Wednesday, July 29.

Only the eight fastest swimmers advanced to the final and Prakash's time of 1:51.99 fell well short. His personal best and national record stands at 1:46.61.

The 32-year-old finished behind fellow Indian debutant Aneesh Gowda who also failed to advance to the finals as he placed 18th overall in 1:51.64. Gowda's time was a slight improvement on his personal best of 1:51.88 but unfortunately not enough to qualify.

England's James Guy posted the fastest time of the heats at 1:45.69 while compatriot Thomas Dean was the slowest qualifier at 1:47.46.

In para swimming Chaitanya Vishwas Kulkarni and Suyash Narayan Jadhav both advanced to the S7 50 m freestyle final. Kulkarni finished fourth in the heats with a time of 32.77 seconds, while Jadhav placed sixth in 35.35. The S7 classification is for swimmers with limited leg function.

Earlier, Prakash had failed to qualify for the men's 50 m butterfly semifinals and the 200 m butterfly event, extending a difficult run at the Games for the two-time Olympian. He has yet to match his personal-best times which also stand as national records in any event so far.

Prasanta Karmakar remains the only Indian para swimmer to win a Commonwealth Games medal, taking bronze in the 50 m freestyle S9 event held at the 2010 Delhi Games. The S9 classification covers athletes with amputations and spinal restrictions.

(With inputs from PTI)