India’s drought in the swimming pool continued as Srihari Nataraj failed to make it to the final of the men’s 200m freestyle category, on Wednesday, at the Asian Games. Despite that, he shattered the national record in the event, previously held by Sajan Prakash. The 22-year-old Nataraj clocked a time of 1:49.05s in the heat, bettering the previous record of 1:49.73s. India has failed to bag a medal in the pool, ever since the 2014 Asian Games, where Sandeep Sejwal had won a bronze in men’s 50m breaststroke.
Along with Nataraj, Tanish George Mathew, and Lineysha also failed to make their place in the 200m freestyle final and women’s 100m breaststroke final. Meanwhile, 23-year-old national record holder in the women’s 100m backstroke Maana Patel was knocked out in the heats. She clocked a time of 1:03.55, which was 2.68 seconds behind the leader. In the heats, she finished in the 13th place.
The young Indian swimmer also failed to make her place in the medals in the women’s 50m backstroke event. However, she will take part in the women’s 4x100m medley relay for her final medal win hope at Hangzhou. On the other hand, Nina Venkatesh also failed to qualify in the final of the women’s 100m butterfly. Nina clocked 1:03.89 in the heats and finished in 14th place overall, and only the top eight swimmers made it to the finals.
National Records Galore for Indian Swimmers at Asian Games
Venkatesh will take part in the upcoming women’s 100m butterfly and the women’s 4x100m medley relay on Friday. Earlier on Tuesday, the Indian team of Srihari Natraj, Likith Selvaraj, Sajan Prakash, and Tanish Matthew missed out on the podium finish in the men’s 4x100m medley relay at the Asian Games. The Indian team managed to secure a fifth-placed finish by clocking 3:40:20. The Indian team still had something to cheer about as they created a new national record with his timing. China dominated the contest once again as they clocked a timing of 3:27:01 to seal the top spot at the podium.
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