Srihari Nataraj advances to 100m backstroke semis, Sajan Prakash crashes out of 50m Fly at CWG

 

India's Srihari Nataraj qualified for the 100 m backstroke semifinals but veteran Sajan Prakash failed to go past the Heats of 50 m butterfly event in the Commonwealth Games swimming competition on Tuesday, July 28.

Nataraj finished fifth in his Heat and 13th overall with a timing of 55.58 seconds. The 16 fastest swimmers move ahead from the preliminary stage and the semifinals will be held later tonight.

Nataraj, whose timing at the 50m mark was 26.26 seconds, has a personal best of 53.77 seconds, which is also the national record that he created in 2021, respectively.

Sajan, although, failed to qualify after finishing eighth in his Heat and ranked 28th overall in the competition.

The 32-year-old, who was part of the ninth and final group, clocked 24.94 seconds to bow out of contention. The effort was well below his personal best of 23.83 seconds which is also a national record.

Sajan, a two-time Olympian, had earlier finished eighth and last in the 200m butterfly event finals on Monday, July 27, clocking 1:58.05 seconds which was underwhelming as his personal best and national record stands at 1:56.38seconds.

The 25-year-old Nataraj, also a two-time Olympian, was a part of the Indian men's 4x200 m freestyle relay team which could not translate an encouraging qualification into a podium finish ending sixth in the final on Monday, July 27. 

In para-swimming, India's R.V.V.B.K. Budigina and Ali Imam also advanced to the finals of the men's 50 m freestyle competition, qualifying sixth and eighth overall respectively.

While Budigina took 26.33 seconds to complete the race, Imam's timing read 28.41seconds.

Prasanta Karmakar remains the only Indian swimmer to have ever won a medal at the Commonwealth Games which was a bronze in the 50m freestyle S9 para event at New Delhi 2010.