CWG 2022: Srihari Nataraj qualifies for the backstroke swimming semifinal, Men’s table tennis defeats Barbados by 3-0

India’s Srihari Nataraj qualified for the men`s 100m backstroke swimming semifinal at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham on Friday. Nataraj finished third in heat 4 with a timing of 54.68s. While Sajan Prakash was eliminated in the men`s 50m butterfly event as he finished eighth with a time of 25.01s.

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In Men’s 400m Freestyle heats, Kushagra Rawat finished 14th with a clocking of 3:57.45. Meanwhile, in the triathlon, India was unsuccessful in their first triathlon appearance in the Commonwealth Games as Adarsh Muralidharan finished 30th and Vishwanath Yadav finished 33rd in the men`s individual sprint final. 

Adarsh Muralidharan finished with a time of 1:00:38 and Vishwanath Yadav finished with a time of 1:02:52. England`s Alex Yee won the first gold medal of the Commonwealth Games on Friday, taking victory in the men`s triathlon. Later in the day, the women’s hockey team will face Ghana. The mixed badminton team would also be in action in the evening. 

Talking about India’s men’s Table Tennis event, India’s top singles players Sathiyan and Sharath Kamal won their matches 3-0 in the best-of-five contest. Sathiyan had earlier paired up with Harmeet Desai to win the doubles match to give India a winning start.

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The make-shift pair of Sathiyan and Harmeet outgunned Kevin Farley and Tyrese Knight 11-9, 11-9, and 11-4 in straight games. Though the first two games looked close, the Indians were never in danger of losing a game though their opponents put up a good fight. The Indians won eight of the 11 points in the first game on serve, claiming a total of 18 out of the overall 33 points they won the match on service.

The 40-year-old Sharath Kamal then stepped to the table and made short work of Ramon Maxwell. beating him 3-0 (11-5, 11-3, 11-3) to make it 2-0 for India.

Sathiyan then sealed victory for India by beating Tyrese Knight 3-0 (11-4, 11-4, 11-5) to seal the comfortable victory for the defending champions.

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India is in Group 3 along with Singapore, Northern Ireland and Barbados in the 16-team competition in which teams have been divided into four groups. India needs to beat a stronger opponent in Singapore in their group so as to avoid running into a stronger opponent in the knockout stages.