The 21-year-old finished fourth in his heat and seventh overall to secure a berth in Sunday’s medal event.
Peter Koetz of South Africa was the fastest swimmer in both the semi-finals with a time of 53.67s on the first day of competition.
And ..Srihari Natraj made it to the final of 100m backstroke at Birmingham 2022!!! Congratulations https://t.co/hg4ybHhvL4
— @swimmingfederationofindia (@swimmingfedera1) 1659124839000
After Prashant Karmakar’s historic bronze medal in para-swimming event in Delhi, the Bengaluru lad will now set his eyes on becoming only the second Indian swimmer to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games. Commonwealth Games in 2010.
At the Tokyo Olympics last year, Natraj became the first Indian to swim in Category A heats. The young swimmer finished 27th in the men’s 100m backstroke event with a timing of 54:31.
Earlier, in the men’s 400m freestyle heat, Kushagra Rawat failed to advance to the semi-finals after finishing 14th with a time of 3:57.45.
Sajan Prakash also missed out on the men’s 50m butterfly event to finish eighth with a time of 25.01s.