Swimming: Srihari Nataraj and Advait Page Break National Records; Still Miss Out Olympic Cut by a Whisker
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Srihari Nataraj and Advait Page
Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj created history again, when he broke the his own national record in the 100m backstroke at the 2021 Sette Colli Trophy in Rome, Italy from last week. He had set the previous record of 54.45s at the Belgrade Trophy 2021.
He broke the national record even while swimming in a slow heat, finishing with a time of 53.90s, coming agonisingly close to the Olympic Qualification time of 53.85s and missing out by only 0.05 seconds.
However, Shirhari Nataraj along with Maana Patel are recommended by the Swimming Federation of India, for the Tokyo Olympics under universality quota. The 2 athletes will be set to go to the Tokyo Olympics if no other Indian swimmer clears the Olympic Qualification time before the 27th of June.
Along with Srihari Nataraj, Advait Page Sets National Record in the 1500m Freestyle
The youngster in the Indian swimming scene, Advait Page, set a new national record in the 1500m freestyle event at the 2021 Dolfin Fran Crippen Memorial Swim Meet of Champions in California, USA. A student at the University of Florida, he clocked a time of 15:23:66s to win, while breaking the old record set by Kushagra Rawat at 15:25.22s.
His valiant efforts however, were nowhere near enough to meet the Olympic Qualification time of 15:00.99s.
Later in Rome, Sajan Prakash, who participated in the Rio Olympics, took to the pool and clocked a time 55.20s in the 100m butterfly heats for a 22nd place finish. The 27-year-old will be back on Saturday for his favoured event, the 200m butterfly.
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Saivee Phatak
(1164 Articles Published)