File photo of Srihari Nataraj© AFP
Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj has qualified for the finals of men’s 100m backstroke after clocking 54:55 seconds in the semi-final event at the ongoing Commonwealth Games. The 21-year-old finished fourth in his heat and seventh overall to secure a berth in the medal event that will take place on Sunday. South African Pieter Coetze, however, was the fastest swimmer across both the semi-finals, clocking 53.67s on day one of the competition.
The Bengaluru lad 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.
Earlier, in men’s 400m Freestyle heats, Kushagra Rawat failed to advance to the semifinals after clocking 3:57.45 to finish 14th overall.
Promoted
Sajan Prakash too missed out in the men’s 50m butterfly event as he finished eighth clocking 25.01s.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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