Athens Olympics: Pakistani swimmer Mumtaz beaten in heats
Pakistan Times Sports Desk

ATHENS (Greece): Athens Olympics swimming competition for Pakistan swimmer Mumtaz Ahmad was over in just 59.19 seconds as he was eliminated in the 100 m free style heats here Wednesday at the Olympic Pool.

Mumtaz finished 6th out of the 7-man competition and it was a little consolation for him that Burundi's Emery Ziyumuira was behind him in the event.

Mumtaz from Army was never in run for the qualification for the main round and was visibly far behind from the beginning till end. "I know from the beginning that I cannot make it, and it is a reality that we are far behind in Olympics standard ", he told 'Pakistan Times' after the competition.

Mumtaz said his participation would help him to improve his timings for the next years SAF Games being held in Colombo. He is the silver medallist of the 9th SAF Games held in Islamabad earlier this year in March.

Pakistans young promising swimmer, Rubab Raza will take part in the heats of 50 m free style on August 20. Both the swimmers are participating in the Olympics on the special invitation cards given by International Olympic Committee to those countries, which failed to qualify.

US shatter oldest swimming record to win Olympic gold

The United States shattered the oldest swimming record in the books on Wednesday to claim the 4x200m freestyle relay and their country's sixth Olympic crown.

Natalie Coughlin, Carly Piper, Dana Vollmer and Kaitlin Sandeno won the gold in 7min 53.42sec, slicing more than two seconds off the previous record of 7:55.47 set by East Germany on August 18, 1987 in Strasbourg, France.

The 17-year-old mark was the oldest swimming world record, and it was also the last to go of the records set by the once dominant East German women, whose success was sullied after the fall of the Berlin Wall by revelations of state-sponsored doping.

Coughlin gave the team a lead of almost two seconds when she covered her leg in a time of 1:57.74 which was faster than the winning time from the 200m freestyle event which she skipped in order to concentrate on the 100 back in which she also won gold.

The Chinese team of Zhu Yingwen, Xu Yanwei, Yang Yu and Pang Jiaying, took silver in 7:55.97 with the German team of Franziska van Almsick, Petra Dallmann, Antje Buschschulte and Hannah Stockbauer taking bronze in 7:57.35.●