Guyana’s leading swimming athlete Andrew Fowler was eliminated yesterday from the men’s 100m freestyle event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan.
Fowler failed to advance to the semi-final round of the competition, finishing a disappointing fourth place with a time of 55.23s in Heat-1 of the event. Fowler entered the race with the fastest time of the respective competitors in the group at 54.10 seconds.
However, the race was won by Alexander Sah of Nepal who stopped the clock at 53.41s. He was followed by Olt Kondirolli of Koso with a time of 54.33s, while Yas Al Bawwad of Palestine rounded out the top three with 54.51s.
The other competitors were Sangay Tenzin of Bhutan, 57.57s, Mubal Azzam Ibrahim of Maldives who clocked 58.37s and cellar occupant Edgar Richardson Iro of Solomon Islands at one minute and 13 seconds. Only the 16 fastest times during the preliminary round will progress to the semifinal section, thus Kondirolli also did not progress to the next stage despite his second place finish. The semifinals are scheduled for today.
Fowler entered the Tokyo games on the back of participation in the South American Championships in Argentina. He competed in the 50m and 100m freestyle events as well as the 50m butterfly event.
Fowler also competed at the 2019 World Championships in the 50m and 100m freestyle events as well as the 2015 edition in Russia in the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly races. He also featured at the 2016 World Championships Short Course which was hosted in Canada.
Meanwhile, Guyana’s other swimming representative 15-year-old Aleka Persaud will enter the pool in Heat-4 of the women’s 50m freestyle event on Friday. Like Fowler, Persaud’s entry time of 28.10s is the fastest among the seven other swimmers in the group.
Fowler is the third Guyanese eliminated from the games following the exits of table tennis standout Chelsea Edghill in the second round of the preliminary draw and boxing star Keevin Allicock in the first round.
