3 Aug 2012

Sport: Pini misses semi in London

6:24 am on 3 August 2012

Papua New Guinea swimmer Ryan Pini has failed to qualify for the semi finals of the men's 100m butterfly at the London Olympics.

The Pacific Games champion finished fourth in his heat, more than a second outside his personal best, in a time of 52.68 seconds, 0.32 seconds outside the qualifying mark.

South Africa's Chad Le Close was the fastest overall qualifier in 51.54 seconds, ahead of Athens and Beijing Gold Medalist Michael Phelps.

There were four Pacific athletes in action in the men's 50m freestyle heats.

Micronesia's Kerson Hadley won his heat in a time of 24.82 seconds but was still two seconds outside of semi finals contention in 40th place.

Giordan Harris from the Marshall Islands came home in a time of 26.88 seconds, ahead of American Samoa's Ching Maou Wei and Cook Islands Zachary Tepaia Payne.

Elsewhere in London, American Samoa's Anthony Liu was eliminated in his judo bout against Latvia's Jevgenijs Borodavko.