Haseeb fails to improve upon his best

KARACHI: Pakistani swimmer Syed Haseeb Tariq failed to improve upon his best time in the 100 metre freestyle swimming competitions at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday.

Canada-based Haseeb clocked 53.81 seconds and failed to beat his personal best timing of 53.34. He finished overall 62nd among 71 competitors of whom one swimmer did not swim at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Haseeb swam in heat-2, carrying eight swimmers, in which he ended sixth. As many as 16 swimmers were to qualify for the semi-finals.

Haseeb feels that having not competed for one and a half years at any stage due to Covid-19 might be the reason behind his poor performance. “There was no issue. I just didn’t have a good race,” Haseeb told ‘The News’ from Tokyo. “Training times and everything else were on point. It happens in swimming where you get one shot only. Having not raced in one and a half year might have been a big reason for today’s performance. I mean lack of racing. A big component of swimming is to race regularly and that part was missed out due to Covid. All the preparation was good. It’s just that the race didn’t go as I had planned,” Haseeb said.

However, the swimmer from Karachi was happy that he learnt a lot while competing at such a major stage. “It was a great experience, a lot was learned,” Haseeb said. “The pressure of the Olympics is not comparable to any other competition. I am proud to have represented Pakistan at this high stage and hope to carry this experience for the future. I have more hunger to train harder and qualify for the Olympics in 2024,” Haseeb said.