Swan exits Games after finishing 64th in 50m freestyle

KARACHI: Pakistan’s top swimmer Lianna Swan finished 64th out of 88 swimmers that took part in the 50m freestyle heats of the swimming competitions of Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.

As many as 91 swimmers were set to feature but two did not start and one was disqualified.

Lianna, who had entered the spectacle with a qualifying time of 28.66, even finished behind that time by clocking 29.02. She ended last in her heat in which seven swimmers competed after one from Armenia did not start.

As per rules, 16 leading swimmers in the 12 heats of the same event qualified for the next phase.

With Lianna, the journey of Pakistani swimmers in Olympics ended. On the second day of the extravaganza London-based swimmer Haris Bandey had finished at the last number out of 50 participants who had featured in the heats of 400m men’s freestyle competitions. Haris had clocked 4:33.13.

Shooter Ghulam Mustafa Bashir was competing in the 25m rapid fire pistol till filing of the story. A few days ago, Minhal Sohail had finished 28th among 51 participants in the 10m air rifle women qualification stage.

National athlete Mehboob Ali was set to feature in the 400m heat on late Friday night. Judoka Shah Hussain on Thursday lost to Bloshenko Artem of Ukrain in the minus 100 kilogramme competitions round of 32. Athlete Najma Parveen will compete in the 200m race on August 15.