BAHRAIN’S Farhan Saleh put in a spirited display in the men’s 50 metres freestyle yesterday at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil.
Competing in the fourth of 11 heats, Saleh finished as the runner-up amongst eight swimmers. He registered a time of 24.61 seconds, which was a new personal best, according to the Bahrain Swimming Association.
It wasn’t enough, however, to earn him a ticket to the next stage. Only 16 of the 85 overall participants qualified for the semi-finals, and Saleh was ranked 58th overall.
“I’m very pleased with my new personal best,” Saleh told the GDN last night by phone from Rio. “I’m very proud that I was able to achieve it here on the Olympics stage, where the level of competition is so high.
“I’ve been training hard for this moment, especially over the last two or three weeks in my training camp here in Rio. I will always remember this experience and I wish I can represent Bahrain once again in the next Olympics four years from now.”
Winning his heat was Hilal Hemed of Tanzania, who finished in 23.70s. In third place behind Saleh was Samson Forcados of Nigeria in 24.85s.
Olim Kurbanov of Tajikistan claimed fourth in 25.77s, while Giordan Harris of Marshall Islands finished fifth in 25.81s. Rounding out the heat’s participants from sixth through eighth place, respectively, were Joshua Tibatemwa of Uganda in 25.98s, Billy Irakoze of Burundi in 26.36s and Eloi Imaniraguha of Rwanda in 26.43s.
The number one overall qualifier from the 50m freestyle heats was Andrii Govorov of Ukraine in 21.49s. Nathan Adrian of the US was second in 21.61s, while his countryman Anthony Ervin was third in 21.63s.
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