Alexander out after bettering national record, Prince’s chance ends too

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, July 31: Nepal’s Alexander Gadegaard Shah bettered the national record and finished third in 100m freestyle while competing with seven other swimmers in Heat 3 at the 2024 Paris Olympics; however, he could not progress further.

Shah completed the distance at 51.91 seconds behind Saudi Arabia’s Zaid Faisal (51.21 seconds) and Adell Sabovic (51.21 seconds). None of the top three swimmers from Heat 3 progressed further as their timing was fairly slower than the top-tier swimmers.

The earlier national record in the event was also set by Shah when he completed the distance in 52.17 seconds while participating at the World Aquatic Championship-2024 in February in Doha, Qatar. 

Based on the timing of the 79 swimmers divided into 10 heats (groups) in the preliminary round of the Paris Olympics, 16 have qualified for the semi-finals. Shah finished 59th overall. 

Jack Alexy of the USA, who won silver in this event at the world championships last year, posted the fastest time with a 47.57 mark. 

Meanwhile, Shah also has national records in 50m freestyle (23.79 seconds), 50m backstroke (28.03 seconds) and 100m backstroke (1 minute 2.10 seconds).

Prince’s second loss

Prince Dahal, former number one junior badminton player of the world, has been unable to challenge senior players at the world’s biggest sports event, the Olympics.

The preliminary stage of badminton’s men’s singles event has been organised by dividing players into groups; thus, Prince plays three matches in the Paris Olympics in a group of four. However, after losing to Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen on Tuesday, Prince has lost two of the three matches and is officially out of the competition.

Prince lost the second match against the Irish player in two consecutive sets. When Nhat reached 21 in the first and second sets, Prince earned 7 and 5 points respectively.

Prince is facing Israel’s Zilberman Misha, positioned 59th in world rankings, on July 31.