Sharath clocks personal best time at Paralympics Games

London: India`s sole entry in swimming, Sharath Gayakwad finished fourth in his 100m Butterfly heat with a personal best timing of 1:07.12 but failed to qualify for the finals in the Paralympics Games here on Thursday.

His timing was 0.58 seconds slower than the qualification mark for the finals. Commenting on his performance, having shaved off five seconds from his Olympic qualification time, the 21-year-old said, "I am really proud of my performance today. It`s disheartening to have missed the finals by such a small margin but I could not have gone any faster." Sharath, who is to participate in four events at the Paralympic Games - 100m Butterfly, 100m Breaststroke, 50m Freestyle and 200m IM - has just returned from a high-performance training camp at the University of Western Australia, Perth. There, he trained under the watchful eye of Mel Tantrum, a Gold Licensed high-performance swimming coach, a program funded by the GoSports Foundation and its network. Sharath will next swim the 100m Breaststroke, his pet event, on September 1. PTI