Ace Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj set ‘Best Indian time’ at the FINA short course World Championship, but that was not enough to take him to the semi-finals of the 50m backstroke event here on Saturday. 

Nataraj, 20, clocked 24.40s in the men’s 50m backstroke event to finish 26th in the overall heats. However, Nataraj, who competed at the Tokyo Games after becoming the second Indian swimmer after Sajan Prakash to breach the ‘A’ qualifying time for the Olympics, was unable to progress to the semi-finals where the top 16 swimmers compete.