FINA World Swimming Championships: Siva Sridhar breaks national record in 200m medley

Melbourne, Dec 13 Indian swimmer Siva Sridhar broke the national record in the mens 200m individual medley but failed to qualify for the events final at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) 2022, here on Tuesday.

Siva clocked 1:59.80s to finish first in heat 1 at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. However, he was a distant 30th across five heats, which had 38 competitors. Notably, only the top eight made the cut for the final.

South Africa's Matthew Sates won the championship in 1:50.15s with USA's Carson Foster (1:50.96) and Canada's Finlay Knox (1:51.04) winning silver and bronze, respectively.

India's previous national record in the 200m individual medley was 2:02.42s, also achieved by Siva. Earlier in June, he won the bronze medal at Singapore National Swimming Championships in the 200m individual medley with a timing of 02:06.69s.

The Tamil Nadu-born swimmer will also compete in the 100m individual medley on Thursday, an olympics.com report said.

On the other hand, Chahat Arora will participate in the women's 100m and 50m breaststroke events on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively. She holds India's national record in both events.

The FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) 2022, which is the 16th edition of the competition, will conclude on Sunday.