Asian Games: Indian men's swimmers make it to finals of backstroke, breaststroke, 4 x 200 m relay events

HANGZHOU: In an encouraging development for the Indian contingent at the ongoing Asian Games in Hangzhou, one swimmer each from men's 50 backstroke and men's 100 breaststroke and men's 4 x200 m relay team made it to the finals of their respective disciplines on Monday.

In the men's 50 m backstroke, heat four, India's Srihari Nataraj earned a qualification to the final. He finished third out of eight in his heat event with timings of 25.43. Overall, he secured a sixth-place finish out of 32 players to stay in contention for a medal, a privilege saved for the top eight players.

In the men's 100 m breaststroke, Likith Selvaraj earned a qualification to the final by finishing fourth in his heat with the timings of 1:01.98. Overall, he finished eighth among 32 players to be among the top eight players to go to finals.

Later in the men's 4 x 200 m freestyle relay, the team of Kushagra Rawat, Mathew TG, Sunil Gowda and Aryan Nehra also achieved a qualification to the finals. With the timings of 7:29.04, they finished a fourth spot in their heat. Overall, they finished in sixth place to be among the top eight teams who secured a berth in the finals.

Meanwhile, Olympian Maana Patel (women's 50 m backstroke), Anil Kumar Shylaja and VV Khade (men's 50 m freestyle), Dinidhi Desinghu (women's 200 m freestyle) and Harshika Ramachandra (women's 2000 m individual medley) failed to make it to the finals after not securing top eight spots in their respective disciplines. Earlier, the Indian women's 4x100 m freestyle relay team consisting of Dhinidhi Desinghu, Maana Patel, Janhvi Choudhary, Shivangi Sarma secured seventh place finish in the final of their discipline at the ongoing Asian Games at Hangzhou on Sunday.

Clocking a timing of 3:54.66, India finished in seventh spot. At the podium was China (3:33.96), establishing an Asian Games record, followed by Japan, who took home silver with the timings of 3:38.48 and finally Hong Kong, who bagged the bronze with timings of 3:39.10.

The women's 4x100m freestyle relay made the final after clocking 3:53.80 in heat 2. With a fantastic time of 3:53.80, the team of Shivangi Sarma, Dinidhi Desinghu, Maana Patel and Janhvi Choudhary secured a spot in the final. Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj missed a chance to win a medal in the men's 100-meter backstroke at the 19th Asian Games. He finished sixth in the final on Sunday.

Starting the race with the second position, Nataraj recorded a time of 54.48 with a reaction time of 0.60. Nataraj on the back of his fine performance reached the men's 100m backstroke final earlier in the day. He recorded his season-best time of 54.71. The swimming events at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Aquatic Sports Arena will go on from September 24 to September 29. The Indian contingent features 21 swimmers - 12 men and nine women.

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