WUG: Srihari Nataraj betters his 'Best Indian Time' to enter 200m freestyle semis

New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) Swimmer Srihari Nataraj bettered his 'Best Indian Time' in the 200m freestyle to advance to the semifinals, the women paddlers overcame Netherlands to secure a round-of-16 berth, while the shuttlers lost to Hong Kong in mixed team event on day two of the World University Games in the Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany on Friday.

Two-time Olympian Nataraj, 24, timed 1:48.22 seconds to top his heats and eclipse his previous mark of 1:48.66 set last month at the Singapore National Swimming Championships.The Bengaluru swimmer qualified fifth overall for the semifinals scheduled later on Friday.

The women table tennis players lost the opening rubber before overcoming the Netherlands 3-1 in Group 5. Sayali Wani lost the opener to Men Shuohan 11-13, 7-11, 11-3, 3-11 before Taneesha Kotecha beat Emine Ernst 11-6, 8-11, 11-4, 11-3.

Pritha Vartikar then overcame Karlijn van Lierop 7-11, 11-2, 11-4, 9-11, 11-6 before Taneesha wrapped it up in style by beating Shuohan 12-10, 13-11, 11-7.

On Thursday, the women had lost their opening round match to Romania 2-3.

The men's table tennis team defeated Colombia 3-2 in Group 3.

Devarsh Vaghela lost to Camilo Gonzalez 7-11, 5-11, 8-11, before Ayaz Murad brought India on level terms by defeating Juan Uribe 11-9, 11-7, 13-11.

Harkunwar Singh gave India a 2-1 lead by beating Nicolas Gonzalez 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 but Colombia came back with Camilo overcoming Murad 11-8, 11-5, 11-9 in the return match.

In the decider, Vaghela defeated Uribe 6-11, 13-11, 11-6, 11-9. They will take on powerhouse China in the Round of 16 later in the day.

In badminton mixed team, India put up a fight before going down to higher-ranked Hong Kong 2-3 in Group F. They had blanked Macau 5-0 in the first round on Thursday.

Saneeth Dayanand defeated Che Wang Joshua 15-8, 15-4, but Devika Sihag lost to Saloni Mehta of Hong Kong 12-15, 15-6, 7-15. The men's doubles pair of Saneeth Dayanand and Sathish Kumar Karunakaran then gave India the lead by beating the Shing Hei-Lau Sin Hei pair 16-14, 15-13. However, Hong Kong won the women's doubles and mixed doubles to clinch the rubber.

In tennis, Anjali Rathi defeated Christiana Owomuhangi of Uganda 6-0, 6-0 to advance to women's singles round of 32, while Vaishnavi Adkar also made the grade by beating Jolien Maria Xenia Geels of Netherlands 6-1, 6-0.

In men's doubles round of 32, Kabir Hans and Maan Kesharwani beat the Thai pair Taentawan Majoli and Suphawat Sae-Oui 6-1, 6-1.

In swimming, while Srihari made the semifinal grade, fellow Indian Aneesh Gowda finished fifth in his heats clocking 1:52.42 to miss the grade.

In 400m individual medley, Bhavya and Shrungi finished 20th and 19th respectively in a 21-swimmer field. Shrungi clocked 5:16.90 while Bhavya timed 5:17.62 in the heats to miss the finals.

In fencing (men's individual epee), Balram Joshi beat Chinese Taipei's Hsiang Ching Wu 15-12 in the table of 128, before going down to American fencer Diego Calderon 5-15 in the table of 64. PTI AM AM APA APA