Rio 2016: Swimmer Shivani Kataria makes an early exit

Some disappointing news from Rio as India's only woman swimmer Shivani Kataria made an early exit from the Games. The swimmer clocked 2 minutes and 9.3 seconds in the 200 m freestyle, and finished 28th out of the total 29 contestants. With only the top 16 making it to the next stage of the semis, the young swimmer's timing wasn't good enough to take her through.

US’s Kathleen Ledecky clocked 1:55:01 minutes to top the list followed by Australia's Emma Mckeon at the second spot in 1:55:80 minutes and Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom ended third in 1:56:11 minutes.

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Shivani's participation in the Olympics had happened by way of a wild card entry. She was selected by Swimming Federation of India (SFI) president, Digambar Kamat, since no other Indian swimmer made the cut in the qualifying rounds. Further, she met the other criteria for qualification, that of having participated in the previous World Championships. This experience on the world stage will hopefully broaden her learning curve.

Also Read: Olympian at 13: Gaurika Singh is the youngest competitor at Rio

Meanwhile, the other swimmer in the competition, Sajan Prakash, also crashed out of the tournament finishing 28th in men's 200m butterfly with a timing of 1:59.37, also second from bottom.

Read more from our Rio series here

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