Commonwealth Games 2022: Srihari Nataraj produces best ever finish for an Indian swimmer
Srihari Nataraj's 5th place finish in 50m Backstroke is the best ever finish in an open Swimming final at the CWG by an Indian swimmer.
Srihari Nataraj
Commonwealth Games 2022: Swimmer Srihari Nataraj finished fifth in the Men's 50m backstroke final with a time of 25.23 seconds on Monday night, achieving the best ever finish in a CWG final by an able-bodied Indian swimmer.
The gold went to Andrew Jeffcoat of New Zealand who clocked 24.65 seconds. Srihari was 0.58s behind Jeffcoat and 0.26s behind the bronze medal winner.
Virdhawal Khade (6th), Sandeep Sejwal (8th) in the 2010 CWG and Sajan Prakash (7th and 8th in two finals) in the 2018 CWG are the only able-bodied swimmers from India who had reached CWG finals in the past.
Para swimmers Sharath Gayakwad and Prasanta Karmakar, however, had both finished 4th in the 2014 CWG.
Nataraj missed out on India's first ever CWG medal in Swimming by 25 microseconds but this continues an amazing campaign for him. He finished 7th and 5th in two finals, making this the most successful campaign ever by an Indian.