Swimmers Nataraj, Prakash finish fifth, seventh (Lead)

Jakarta : Swimmers Srihari Nataraj and Sajan Prakash finished fifth and seventh in the men's 200m butterfly and 100m backstroke final events respectively at the 18th Asian Games here on Sunday.

Starting in lane 3, Prakash clocked 1:57.75 seconds in 200m butterfly final. Japan's Seto Daiya won the title with a timing of 1:54.53 seconds.

Meanwhile, in the 100m backstroke event, Nataraj clocked 56.19 seconds.

Prakash had earlier qualified as the third fastest swimmer in the heats.

His qualification time of 55.86 was the slowest among the eight finalists.

Earlier Nataraj started in lane six and clocked 55.86 seconds in the heat while compatriot Arvind Mani finished second but failed to qualify to the next round.

Prakash qualified for the final with a time of 1:58.12 seconds.

Prakash was 0.06 seconds behind Nao Horomura of Japan who led the pack.

Saurabh Sangvekar, the other Indian in the fray, crashed out in the 200m freestyle event, clocking 1:54.87 seconds.