Asian Games: Srihari Nataraj creates national record in 200m freestyle

HANGZHOU: The 22-year-old Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj created a national record at the ongoing Asian Games on Wednesday but still remained as a reserve swimmer in the final match of men's 200m freestyle.

Nataraj clocked 1:49.05 in the men's 200m freestyle heats and finished in 10th place overall, for which he failed to make his place in the final event and stayed as a reserve. But with his heat timing, Nataraj made a new national record, as per Olympics.com.

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 at the 19th edition of the Asian Games.

Meanwhile, 23-year-old national record holder in the women’s 100m backstroke Maana Patel was knocked out in the heats at the Asian Games. Maana 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.

Venkatesh wil 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.