Ninth All-Africa Games in Algiers, Algeria-Mangroo makes 400m final |14 July 2007
Quite happy with his performance in the morning, Mangroo returned to the same swimming pool in the afternoon for the final. Although he knew that he did
not stand a chance of finishing among the medallists, Mangroo's target was to improve his time and he did it with 4:17.25 for eighth and last place.
South African Troyden Prinsloo won the gold medal with a time of 3:55.29. Prinsloo's time is a new African record. The old record of 3:59.56 belonged to Tunisian Hatem Seif.
The silver and bronze medals went to Tunisian Ahmed Mathlouthi (3:55.75) and South African Jean Basson (3:57.97).
"I'm happy with my time. I didn't shave and taper for the races, so I believe the times are encouraging," said the 19-year-old.
In the women's 100m freestyle, Shannon Austin failed to better her personal best of 1:03.60, clocking 1:04.46 for 19th place overall out of 25 swimmers.
"I wanted to do better but I was nervous. This was my first race at the All-Africa Games," said the 14-year-old who is making her debut at theses Games.
As for butterfly specialist Bertrand Bristol, he clocked 1:00.91 in the 100m butterfly for 14th place overall out of 22 competitors.
"I'm satisfied with my time," said the 25-year-old.