11th Asian Aquatics C’ships: Srihari Nataraj opens India’s medal tally with double haul

Ahmedabad, Sep 28 Twenty-four-year-old Srihari Nataraj opened India’s medal tally at the 11th Asian Aquatics Championships here at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex in Ahmedabad by clinching a Silver medal in the 200m freestyle and 50m backstroke for men.

He clocked an impressive 1:48.47 seconds in 200m freestyle, finishing behind China’s Haibo XU who clocked 1:46.83 to bag the gold and in 50m backstroke he clocked 25.46 seconds to win another Silver. China’s Gukailai Wang bagged the Gold with a timing of 25.11 seconds.

Now focusing on middle-distance events apart from his pet events that is 50m and 100m backstroke, Srihari got off to a strong start in the 200m freestyle in the first race of the finals on Sunday evening. Swimming in lane no.1, he was on-par with Haibo, with his first 50m split at 25.10 while the Chinese swimmer’s was 24.93 seconds.

Srihari was pushing Haibo with quick-turns and fast streamline underwater kicks on either end. His second and third 50m split were fast at 52.35 seconds and 1:20.39 seconds while Haibo was at 51.81 and 1:19.41 respectively. In the 50m backstroke, Srihari was flying high right from the get-go, maintaining his sprint-pace with China’s Gukailai Wang.

In the women’s 200m freestyle, Japan’s Minami Yui burst off the blocks, taking the early lead at the 25m mark with compatriot Hanari Runo trailing close behind.

The final stretch, however, saw a dramatic shift as Hong Kong’s Xintong Wang and Japan’s H. Tanimoto produced strong finishes to edge past Desinghu (2:02.84), who had to settle for fifth place after breaking the national record of 2:02.97.

Reflecting on the scintillating performance from Srihari, India Head Coach Nihar Ameen said, “It is pretty incredible to bag two back to back medals on the opening day and Srihari is pushing for a third in the relay later this evening. This has never happened before in the Asian Championships which is a great result for India.”

Speaking about focusing on middle distance events, Nihar said, “We felt like he was focusing too much only on backstroke. He is a natural in freestyle and had a good base so we thought 200m would be a good event and a medal here in this event gives puts him in good stead for the CWG and Asian Games next year.”

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