India’s youngest athlete in Commonwealth Games is 14 years old

Birmingham. 14-year-old squash player Anhat Singh, India’s youngest athlete at the Commonwealth Games, made a winning start in the women’s singles on Friday. At the same time, Indian swimmer Srihari Natraj also performed amazingly to make it to the final of the men’s 100m backstroke event. Anhat defeated St. Vincent and Jada Ross of the Grenadines 11-5, 11-2, 11-0 in the last round of 64 in a one-sided encounter.

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

At the same time, Indian swimmer Srihari Natraj on Friday qualified for the final of the Commonwealth Games in the semi-finals of the men’s 100m backstroke event by finishing 7th with a timing of 54.55 seconds. He reached the final from this time by finishing fourth in the second semi-final and 7th overall.

21-year-old Natraj from Bengaluru had made it to the semi-finals with a timing of 54.68 seconds in his heat. He was the third fastest swimmer in his heat and the 5th fastest overall. Sajan Prakash and Kushagra Rawat, playing for the first time, could not reach the semi-finals in their respective categories.
Prakash finished 8th in the heat, clocking 25.01 seconds in the men’s 50m butterfly. The top 16 swimmers have advanced to the semi-finals. Sharad finished last in his heat in the men’s 400m freestyle with a timing of 3:57.45. Kushagra and Prakash will now challenge in the second category. Prakash will compete in the men’s 100m and 200m butterfly, while Kushagra will compete in the men’s 1500m freestyle and 200m freestyle.

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