Nataraj books final berth in men's 100m backstroke, Kushagra finishes last

Earlier, in mens 400m freestyle heat, Kushagra Rawat failed to advance to the semifinals after clocking 357.45 to finish 14th overall.Sajan Prakash, too, missed out in the mens 50m butterfly event as he finished eighth, clocking 25.01s.

Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj has qualified for the finals of men's 100m backstroke after clocking 54:55 seconds in the semi-final of the ongoing Commonwealth Games here.

The 21-year-old finished fourth in his heat and seventh overall to secure a berth in the medal round 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 swimmer 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.

On Saturday, Kushagra Rawat finished last in his heat in the men's 200m freestyle event.

Rawat clocked 1:54.56 seconds in heat 3, which was won by Elijah Winnington of Australia with a timing of 1:46.87s.

South Africa's Matthew Sates finished second and qualified for the final with a timing of 1:48.25s.

The top two from the eight-member field in heat 3 qualified for the final. The other three finalists came from heat 4 and heat 5. Earlier, in men's 400m freestyle heat, Kushagra Rawat failed to advance to the semifinals after clocking 3:57.45 to finish 14th overall.

Sajan Prakash, too, missed out in the men's 50m butterfly event as he finished eighth, clocking 25.01s.