In a wet, high‑pressure final at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, Srihari Nataraj crossed the line 0.48 seconds behind the bronze‑medal time, clocking 25.52 seconds for 10th place—his slowest finish of the day.
Nataraj had set a personal best of 25.18 in Belgrade back in June 2021, but the heat saw him finish 25.37, a fraction slower than his record‑setting run. The gap widened in the final, where he trailed the field by nearly half a second.
China’s Jiayu Xu shattered the Asian Games record, slicing the 24.04‑second barrier and eclipsing Japan’s Junya Koga’s 2014 mark of 24.28. Xu’s win left the entire field scrambling for a place in the top four.
Across the board, India’s swimmers were left on the sidelines. Akash Mani and Geetesh Shah posted personal bests of 23.43 and 23.57 in the 50m freestyle heats, yet both finished 26th and 28th overall. Vedaant Madhavan, son of actor R Madhavan, missed the 4×200m freestyle relay final by 0.2 seconds, with the quartet finishing ninth in 7:24.32.
The Indian squad now faces a new test: Nataraj and his teammates will regroup for the 200m freestyle on September 23, hoping to salvage a medal haul that has been elusive since 2014.