CWG 2026: India's Swimming Woes Continue As Sajan Prakash Misses 200m Freestyle Final

Seasoned Indian swimmer Sajan Prakash failed to qualify for the men's 200m freestyle finals at the Commonwealth Games, signing off with a disappointing fifth in his heat and 20th overall here on Wednesday.

Only the eight fastest swimmers advance to the final and Sajan was way off the mark at 1.51.99 seconds. His personal best and the National Record stands at 1:46.61 seconds.

The 32-year-old finished behind debutant compatriot Aneesh Gowda, who too failed to move ahead by ending 18th overall with a timing of 1:51.64 seconds.

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Gowda''s performance was a marginal improvement on his personal best of 1:51.88 secs, but it was never going to be enough as the fastest time recorded was 1:45.69sec by England's James Guy.

The slowest qualifier was another Englishman, Thomas Dean, who clocked 1:47.46sec.

In the para swimming competition, Chaitanya Vishwas Kulkarni and Suyash Narayan Jadhav entered the S7 50m freestyle finals. Kulkarni was fourth in the Heats at 32.77seconds, while Jadhav was sixth with a timing of 35.35sec. The S7 classification is for swimmers with limited leg function.

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Earlier, Sajan Prakash had failed to qualify for the men''s 50m butterfly semifinals and the 200m butterfly events, continuing a poor run for the two-time Olympian.
He has failed to touch his personal bests, which also happen to be national records, even once so far.

Prasanta Karmakar remains the only Indian para swimmer to have ever won a medal at the Commonwealth Games -- a bronze in the 50m freestyle S9 para event at the 2010 Delhi CWG. S9 classification covers athletes with amputations and spinal restrictions.