CWG: Srihari, Sajan disappoint on third day (Swimming Roundup)

Gold Coast (Australia) April 7 (IANS) Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj finished ninth in the semi-finals of the men s 50 metre backstroke while Sajan Prakash finished a disappointing last in the men s 200 metre butterfly final at the 21st Commonwealth Games here on Saturday.

Placed in the semi-final 2 Srihari completed the race in 26.50 seconds with a 0.64 second reaction time. In the eight-men final Sajan clocked 1:59.05 seconds to finish five seconds more than the gold medal winner Chad Le Clos of South Africa.

Srihari position in the semi-final 2 was fifth but in the overall semi-finals standings he was ninth. Top eight performers enter the final.

Earlier during the heats Srihari recorded a time of 26.47 seconds to qualify in the ninth spot among 16 qualifiers. The Indian finished third in Heat 1 behind Australia s Mitch Larkin and Xavier Castelli of Wales.

Australians Mitch Larkin and Benjamin Treffers claimed the top two spots in the semi-finals with the timings of 24.91 and 24.99 seconds respectively.

In men s 200 metre Butterfly final event Sajan finished last and in the process Le Clos achieved a CWG record by clocking a timing of 1:54:00 seconds at the Optus Aquatic Centre here.

Australia s David Morgan bagged the silver after finishing at 1:56:36 while Scotland s Duncan Scott (1:56:60) had to settle for the bronze.

Earlier Sajan narrowly qualified for the finals after finding himself in the reserve category after the Heats. He recorded a timing of 1:58.87 seconds to better his own national record of 1:59.10 and finish at the fifth spot in Heat 2 of the qualification round.

--IANS
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