Birmingham: Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj has qualified for the finals of men's 100m backstroke after clocking 54:55 seconds in the semi-final event at the ongoing Commonwealth Games here. The 21-year-old finished fourth in his heat and seventh overall to secure a berth in the medal event that will take place on Sunday.
South African Pieter Coetze, however, was the fastest swimmer across both the semi-finals, clocking 53.67s on day one of the competition. The Bengaluru lad will now set his sights on becoming only the second Indian swimmer to bag a medal in the Commonwealth Games since Prasanta Karmakar's historic bronze in the para-swimming event at the Delhi CWG in 2010.