Shikha fails to qualify for 100m freestyle final

Athens:

Shikha Tandon finished seventh in women's 100 metre freestyle swimming event at the Olympic Games today. Tandon, who clocked 59.70 seconds, was just better than the last competitor Nicoleta Coica of Moldova and was 2.32 second behind Venessa Garcia of Puerto Rico who topped the race in 57.38 seconds. The 19-year-old, who was the lone Indian participant in the swimming event, clocked 28.31 seconds for 50 metre, which is 1.81 seconds lower than her personal best of 26.5 second that had secured her the Athens berth. Tandon's reaction time was recorded as 0.82 seconds. Yelena Skalinskaya of Kazakhstan, timing 58.56 seconds, was second and Linda McEachrane was third clocking 58.56 seconds. (PTI)