Egner Olympics journey ends
30 Jul 2024
Botswana’s dream of a medal in swimming at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympic Games were shattered when Maxine Egner was eliminated in the 100 metres freestyle heat after finishing third with a time of 58.96 and was ranked 27th overall.
She is the third woman to compete at the Olympics and fail to proceed to the next round.
In Beijing in 2008, Smanatha Paxionos failed to proceed as she was ranked 70th and Naomi Rule also failed in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and was ranked 46th.
Egner started very strong and it did not come as a surprise when she hit the 50 metres mark on position two, but she slowed down and Tilly Collymore of Granada passed her to claim position two.
Van de Westhuizen of Zimbabwe won the heat in 58.19.
Botswana swimming coach, Sidingulwazi Sibanda said he was impressed by Egner’s fighting spirit in her Olympic debut.
He said despite not moving on to the next stage, the swimmer had learnt a lot.Sibanda said Egner would be moving to America on scholarship in September and that the university she would be attending was a division one in swimming.
He said they were looking forward to the swimmer improving in the next competitions.
Sibanda said he was convinced that she would make it to the next Olympics to be held in Los Angels in 2028.
Another swimmer, Andrian Robinson did not meet the semi-final qualifying bracket as he was eliminated on Saturday. Ends
Source : BOPA
Author : Anastacia Sibanda
Location : Gaborone
Event : Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Date : 30 Jul 2024