India’s start in swimming at the Paralympics Games 2016 saw its lone swimmer Suyash Jadhav missing out on a berth for the finals of Men’s 50m freestyle event as he finished ninth in the qualifying round at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. The Indian finished his Heat in fifth with a timing of 31.58 seconds which saw him missing out on a berth in the finals of the event by just under a second.
The top 8 swimmers from a total of 14 competing athletes in the two Heats were to qualify for the Finals of the event in Rio. India’s Suyash Jadhav took part in the event as he was in Heat 1 along with tough competitors like Australia’s Matthew Levy, Brazil’s Italo Pereira, Germany’s Tobias Pollap, Great Britain’s Michael Jones, Colombia’s Carlos Serrano Zarate and Aruba’s Jesus David De Marchena Acevedo.
Whereas, Heat 2 consisted of another seven athletes who were looking to qualify for the finals of the biggest event on the planet for them. These athletes were: Honduras’ Emmanuel Diaz, Canada’s Jean-Michel Lavalliere, Great Britain’s Jonathan Fox, Ukraine’s Ievgenii Bogodaiko, China’s duo of Shiyun Pan and Jingang Wang along with Germany’s Hannes Schuermann.
22-year-old Suyash Jadhav was the only Indian competitor in the event as he qualified for the Paralympic Games with a timing of 32.64 seconds, earning the ‘A’ qualifying mark. The Indian started his Heat 1 in fine form but he could not carry with his form as he finished fifth with a timing of 31.58 seconds, as he took a reaction time of 0.97 seconds.
After the completion of both the Heats, the Indian was unlucky to have missed on the top-8 swimmers overall out of the 14 total swimmers and as he finished at the ninth. The Finals of the event will take place in the early hours of tomorrow i.e 10 September 2016 at 2:30 AM IST.
Here is the list of the top-8 swimmers who have qualified for the finals:
Matthew Levy (Australia) – 28.55 seconds
Carlos Serrano Zarate (Colombia) – 28.87 seconds
Jingang Wang (China) – 28.89 seconds
Ievgenii Bogodaiko (Ukraine) – 29.24 seconds
Jonathan Fox (Great Britain) – 29.77 seconds
Shiyun Pan (China) – 29.81 seconds
Tobias Pollap (Germany) – 30.23 seconds
Michael Jones (Great Britain) – 30.67 seconds
