Commonwealth Games 2018: Virdhawal Khade in 50m butterfly semis; Srihari Nataraj also through in 100m backstroke

Gold Coast: India’s Virdhawal Khade advanced to the semi-finals in the men’s 50m butterfly event of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games at the Optus Aquatic Centre on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_4419117” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Virdhawal Khade competes in the 50m butterfly heats. Reuters[/caption] Khade, who competed in Heat 5 along with teammate Sajan Prakash, overcame a slow start in lane 6 to finish fifth, clocking 24.52 seconds. South African Ryan Coetzee, who swam next to the Indian, topped the heat with a time of 23.94. The Maharashtra swimmer, making his international comeback after a long sabbatical, finished srongly to pip teammate Prakash, who failed to capitalise on his good start. In the end, Khade’s timing was good enough to secure his place in the top 16 swimmers who advanced to semifinals from a total of 56 who competed across seven heats. The semi-finals of the event will be held later on Thursday. In the men’s 100m Backstroke event, Srihari Nataraj also qualified for the semi-finals after clocking 56.71 seconds in the heats.