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Ellina Mhlanga

Senior Sports Reporter

ZIMBABWE’S swimmer Peter Wetzlar missed out on the semi-finals in the men’s 100m freestyle when he finished fifth in Heat Four in a time of 50.31 seconds despite posting a personal best time and setting a new national record yesterday at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Going into yesterday’s event, Wetzlar was not among the favourites in his heat based on the entry times but he put up a courageous performance to post a personal best time of 50.31 seconds. His previous personal best time was 50.50 seconds. Overall Wetzlar was ranked 42 out of 70 swimmers.

The best 16 swimmers from the nine heats proceeded to the semi-finals. In first place in Heat Four was Ian Yentou Ho of Hong Kong in 49.49 seconds. He was followed by Armenia’s Artur Barseghyan with a time of 49.78 seconds.

In third place was Nikolas Antoniou of Cyprus in 50.00 seconds and Uzbekistan’s Khurshidjon Tursunov was fourth in 50.14 seconds. Samy Boutouil of Morocco was sixth in 50.37 seconds while Ari-Pekka Liukkonen of Finland was seventh in 50.48 seconds. In eighth place was Sri Lanka’s Matthew Abeysinghe in 50.62 seconds.

For Wetzlar, setting a national record and posting a personal best time should give him some comfort.

Posting on their Facebook, the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee congratulated Wetzlar for his efforts.

“Hearty congratulations to Peter on his Tokyo 2020 campaign. We celebrate your PB, national record and strong-willed representation and performance.

“Peter ranked 42 out of 70! And will not be proceeding to the next stage.

“The future is exciting!

“Greatest appreciation to Peter Wetzlar’s coach, technical team and all behind the scenes support!”

Wetzlar was the second and last Zimbabwe swimmer in competition since the country had only two representatives in swimming as Donata Katai could not also make the semi-finals in the women’s 100m backstroke on Sunday.

Although both swimmers managed to take some time off from their previous personal best times going into these Games, they came short to progress to the next stage. They can only pick some lessons from this experience and hope for better fortunes in the future.

The two swimmers got the opportunity to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games after Zimbabwe were awarded two slots to the multisport showpiece by FINA as local swimmers struggled to reach the qualifying times.

It’s the same story for athletics, who got awarded one slot to the Games by World Athletics. Only rowing and golf were able to meet the qualifying standards to the Games during the qualifying events.

Zimbabwe is now looking up to golfer Scott Vincent, who is yet to compete as the men’s golf event tees off tomorrow. Sprinter Ngoni Makusha is expected on track for the men’s 100m event on Saturday.

Rower Peter Purcell-Gilpin returns to competition tomorrow when he takes part in the semi-final C/D.

He is out of contention for a medal after he came sixth in the quarter-finals on Sunday. Only the top three progressed to semi-final A/B and those that finished outside that ranking compete in semi-final C/D.