ZIMBABWE swimmer Paige van der Westhuizen was disappointed after she failed to qualify for the semifinals of the 100m freestyle event at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics yesterday.
She finished first in her heat in the women's 100m freestyle, but missed out on a semifinal berth after finishing 25th overall, closing her tournament page on the first attempt.
The Team Zimbabwe representative, who booked her ticket to Paris via the universality route, was the toast of heat 1 in a time of 58.19 seconds. Grenada's Tilly Collymore and Maxine Egner of Botswana finished second and third in her heat in identical 58.98 times.
However, Paige's performance where she fell short of her personal best 57.34 was not enough to see her through to the Olympics' semifinals.
"I mean, obviously being my first Olympics, I was very nervous. And I think just coming on a stage this big with these many spectators and knowing the whole country back home is supporting me does put a lot of pressure on yourself.
“In terms of my race, it was not what I wanted. I am a little bit disappointed with it," said a devasted Paige.
"But I think I'm going to use this to build forward into the next world champs and work on what I did wrong, learn how to manage my nerves at such a big stage. I think it was not far off my best. It was only 0.7 off my best."
Paige's times were slower than the bottom-placed swimmers from the respective second to fourth heats, condemning her to a 25 out of 29 finish in her debut Olympics appearance.
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Nesrine O'Callaghan (Australia), Croatia's Jana Pavalic (55.77) and Gloria Muzito of Uganda all finished ahead of Paige's time despite their respective eighth place placements in their heats.
Zimbabwe’s Sports minister Kirsty Coventry is Africa's most decorated Olympian with seven medals, among them two gold.
