Shikha fails to qualify for final

Shikha Tandon finished seventh in women's 100 metre women's freestyle heat of swimming event at the Olympic Games in Athens on Wednesday.

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 seconds that had secured her the Athens berth.

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Coica was at third spot at the 50 metre distance timing 27.98 seconds but at finish the Moldovan was lagging behind by 2.47 seconds against the leader.

Yelena Skalinskaya of Kazakhstan, timing 58.56 seconds, was second and Linda McEachrane was third clocking 58.56 seconds.