XXX Olympic Games in London – July 27- August 12, 2012-Mangroo finishes sixth in the second heat |01 August 2012

Inside the 50m pool of the Aquatics Centre in London, Mangroo clocked 56.46 seconds, which is almost one second slower than his personal best time of 55.90 seconds.

Speaking to Sports Nation, Mangroo said he was well prepared and was ready to give his best in the pool, but however failed to produce the anticipated result. Apart from having a slight difficulty with his swimming cap, the young swimmer said he was expecting to do better as his opponents were not far better than him.

It was Grenada’s Esau Simpson who won the second heat in 53.26 seconds ahead of Sergey Krovyakoz of Turkmenistan who was second in 54.43 seconds. Paul Elaisa of Fiji finished third in 54.87 seconds.

Despite not improving his PB, Mangroo finished ahead of six other swimmers in the eight heats.

American Nathan Adrian was the top qualifier in the 100m freestyle heats with a time of 48.19 seconds. The other top qualifiers were South Africa's Gideon Louw with 48.29 seconds and the Netherlands' Sebastiaan Verschuren with 48.37 seconds
The semifinals and final were to be held later yesterday.

Text and photo: Roland Duval in London