Nisha’s poor show ends India’s challenge

Sydney: National women's champion Nisha Millet flopped as the Indian challenge in the Olympics swimming came to an end without any mark here on Monday.

Eighteen-year-old Bangalore-based Nisha failed to improve upon her own timing in the 200m freestyle and finished 37th in the field of 39 swimmers. Nisha's dream of improving her timing was shattered as she swam 2.27 seconds slower than her best timing of 2:06.62.

Nisha had qualified directly for the games after her good showing in the Australian age championship early this year. Nisha was clubbed Honduras's Pamela Vasquez and Syria's Marella Mamoun, who turned out even poorerperformances.

Nisha had told UNI before the competition that "Though I am not in the medal race, I will be happy if I improve my existing timing of 2:06.62, which is a national record.''

The difference between the leader of the overall heat Australia's Susie O'Neill, who clocked 1:59.14, and Nisha was of 9.75 seconds. ''I am disappointed with my timing,'' Nisha said after her event.

''I was expecting to better my own timing, but I just could not do that. The competition in my group was too slow and it did effect me also,'' she said.

UNI