CWG swimming: Srihari Nataraj in men's 100m backstroke final

India's Srihari Nataraj qualified for the final of men's 100 metres backstroke after clocking 54:55 seconds in the semi-finals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Friday.

The 21-year-old finished fourth in his heat and seventh overall to secure a berth in the medal round, to be held on Sunday.

South Africa’s Pieter Coetze was the fastest swimmer across both the semi-finals, clocking 53.67s on Day 1 of competition.

The Bengaluru lad will now set his sights on becoming only the second Indian swimmer to win a medal at 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 became the first Indian to swim in the classification A heat. The young swimmer clocked 54:31s to finish 27th in the men's 100m backstroke.

Earlier, in the men's 400m freestyle heats, Kushagra Rawat failed to advance to the semi-finals after clocking 3:57.45s and finishing 14th overall.

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

Both Prakash and Kushagra are still alive in the competition as they will compete in other events.

While Prakash will present his challenge in men's 100m and 200m butterfly, Kushagra will compete in men's 1500m freestyle and 200m freestyle.

• Commonwealth Games 2022