India’s youngest player Anahat’s winning debut at the CWG, swimmer Srihari enters the final

India’s youngest athlete at the Commonwealth Games 2022, 14-year-old Squash player Anahat Singh on Friday made a winning debut in the women’s singles, while Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj also made it to the finals of the men’s 100m backstroke event. Anahat defeated St. Vincent and Jada Ross of the Grenadines 11-5, 11-2, 11-0 in a one-sided encounter in the last 64 round

Anahat was selected in the Indian team after her impressive performance at the Under-15 level. She has been the champion of the Asian Junior Squash and German Open this year. Apart from Anahat, India’s Abhay Singh defeated British Virgin Islands’ Joe Chapman 11-5, 11-5, 11-5 in the men’s singles round-64 match. He will now face Ellen Klein in round 32.

Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj on Friday qualified for the finals of the men’s 100m backstroke event at the Commonwealth Games by finishing 7th with a time of 54.55 seconds. He reached the final by finishing fourth in the second semi-final and seventh overall from this time on. Bengaluru’s 21-year-old Natraj clocked 54.68 seconds in his heat to make it to the semi-finals. He was the third fastest swimmer in his heat and the fifth fastest swimmer overall. Sajan Prakash and first-timer Kushagra Rawat could not make it to the semi-finals in their respective categories

Prakash finished 8th in the heats, clocking 25.01 seconds in the men’s 50m butterfly. The top 16 swimmers have reached the semi-finals. Kushagra finished last in his heats in the men’s 400m freestyle with a time of 3:57.45 seconds. Kushagra and Prakash will now pose the challenge in the second category . Prakash will land in the men’s 100 and 200 m butterfly while Kushagra will land in the men’s 1500 m freestyle and 200 m freestyle.

On the other hand, the Indian men’s and women’s table tennis teams also started their campaign at the Commonwealth Games with a 2-2 consecutive win. Both the teams registered an equal 3-0 victory in their opening two matches, with the men’s team beating Barbados first and then Singapore, the same women’s team defeated South Africa and Fiji.