India’s swimmers Sajan Prakash (200m butterfly) and Srihari Nataraj (100m backstroke) went through to their respective finals on the opening day of the 2018 Asian Games on Sunday.
(Follow India’s events on day one in our live blog here.)
Sajan qualified for the final after a terrific swim in his heat. Sajan was leading after the first 50m before Japan’s Nao Horomura and Chinese Taipei’s Kuanhung Wang overtook him after 150m.
However, Sajan dug into his tank and made a burst for it in the final 50m, eventually securing second place in his heat, with a timing of 1:58.12, which was the third-best overall and puts him in contention for a medal.
Horomura won the heat with 1:58.06. His compatriot Daiya Seto had the overall best time from all heats, with 1:57.23.
Srihari, meanwhile, just about qualified for the final. India secured a 1-2 finish in the first heat, with Srihari and Arvind Mani topping the chart. Srihari won the heat with 55.86, while Arvind recorded 58.09 and his timing was not enough for a place in the final. The seven other finalists all have better times than Srihari in the heats, so it’s going to take a herculean effort in the final if the Indian wants to end up on the podium.
Srihari’s final will start at 4.55 pm IST while Sajan’s final is at 6.27 pm IST.