Swimmer Srihari Nataraj books himself a Tokyo Olympics berth

India swimmer Srihari Nataraj officially booked himself a Tokyo Olympics berth on Wednesday after Fina, the sport’s world governing body, approved his ‘A’ standard qualification time in the 100m backstroke time trial at the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome.

“...Srihari Nataraj Olympic qualification time of 53.77 (seconds) swam in the time trial at the Sette Colli Trophy is affirmed by FINA. SFI had put forward its representation to FINA for this. Srihari joins Sajan Prakash as India’s A qualification entry to Tokyo,” the Swimming Federation of India tweeted.

Nataraj’s feat came on Sunday and it was also a new national record besides being enough to achieve the ‘A’ mark for the Tokyo Games set at 53.85 seconds.