Hamza Asif finishes 30th in 50m freestyle heats

Pakistan’s Hamza Asif finished 30th in the men’s 50m freestyle, clocking 24.04 seconds in the preliminary round at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan.

He ended at the 30th position out of 47 competitors who featured in the heats.

One swimmer did not feature.  Hamza had also failed to impress in the 100m freestyle on Sunday by finishing 35th out of 43 swimmers.

Asif, who started in lane one, was 2.33 seconds behind the winner. His reaction time was 0.63 seconds. He finished ahead of athletes from the United Arab Emirates, Mongolia, Kuwait, Bahrain and several other countries.

South Korea’s Kim Youngbeom topped the standings in 21.71 seconds, and just se  Games record surpassing the 21.72 seconds set by compatriot Ji Yuchan in 2023. 

Japan’s Shuya Matsumoto finished second in 22.03 seconds, 0.32 behind Kim. Matsumoto, who holds the Asian record at 21.64 seconds, produced a reaction time of 0.65 seconds.

South Korea’s Ji Yuchan took third in 22.23 seconds, 0.52 behind the winner. Ji, the reigning Games-record holder.