Tashkent: Ace Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj created a national record in 50m backstrokes while winning his second gold of the Uzbekistan Open Championship here.
The 20-year-old clocked 25.11 seconds to bag the top prize in the FINA-accredited Olympic qualifying event on Saturday night.
Indian swimmers enjoyed a rich haul of 29 medals — 18 gold, seven silver and four bronze — in the meet.
It was Srihari’s third national record in two days as the Bengaluru swimmer had rewritten the national marks twice in 100m backstrokes, his pet event, earlier this week.
In 100m backstrokes in which Srihari has already achieved the ‘B’ standard time for Tokyo Olympics, the Indian had clocked his personal best of 54.10s in the heats before bettering it to 54.07s in the final to win the gold. He missed the Olympic ‘A’ qualification mark in the event by just 0.22 seconds.
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Another Olympic hopeful, Sajan Prakash also dazzled in the meet, notching up gold medal-winning performances in all four categories he participated in.
On the final day on Saturday, the Kerala swimmer, who is coming off a shoulder injury, finished with a time of 53.69s in the 100m butterfly to stand atop the podium.
