Gaurika Singh wins her heat but fails to progress in the women's 100 M backstroke

Gaurika Singh, the youngest competitor at the Rio Olympics has won the first heat of the women’s 100 meter backstroke with a time of 1:08.45, beating Evelina Afoa of Samoa and Rita Zeqiri of Kosovo. While Afoa posted a time of 1:08.74, Zeqiri came third with 1:12.31.

However, Gaurika failed to go on to the semi-finals as she was not in the first 16 to qualify.

The Nepal earthquake survivor did not complete in a career best time and was well behind the U.S.’s Olivia Smoliga and Kathleen Baker, both of whom had four digit finishes in their respective heats, which they won. Katinka Hosszu, the Hungarian Iron Lady who broke the 400 IM world record yesterday came third to Australia’s Emily Seebohm, in her heat.

With a convincing start, Gaurika was poised to dominate. After the 50 meter split, Singh veered a bit to her right in the lane and lost some of her winning edge. This is nonetheless a great achievement for the Universality contestant who can now aim for a berth at Tokyo in 2020.

Congratulations for the 13-year-old’s feat have begun pouring in through social media already.