Aug. 11

Men’s 50m freestyle Eloi Imaniraguha 6:02pm

Rwanda has improved by 21 spots in the latest International Swimming Federation (FINA) women’s 100m butterfly world rankings released on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, jumping from the 65th to the 44th position.

The new rankings were based on the results of the just concluded women’s competition at the ongoing 2016 Rio Olympic Games where Rwanda was represented by 20-year-old Johannah Umurungi.

Umurungi competed in the 100m butterfly heats but failed to make the cut after finishing 44th out of 45 competitors, using 1:11:92.

She only finished ahead of Nada Mohammed Arakji from Qatar, who clocked 1:18.86.Nonetheless, she managed to improve her personal best time of 1:13:14 which she posted during last year’s 16th FINA World Championships that took place from July 24 to August 9 in Kazan, Russia.

"This is a great achievement from such a young talent; swimming is one of the hardest sports, not just in Africa but in the world.

Africa as a continent had only three swimmers on this list and managing to improve by such huge margin is a remarkable success,” said the Rwanda Swimming Federation, president Samuel Kinimba in a phone interview from Rio.

Swede Sarah Fredrika Sjöström, the world record holder in the 50m butterfly, the 100m butterfly and the 200m freestyle, tops this list (100m butterfly) with a world record time of 55 seconds and 64 microseconds.

She is followed by Dana Vollmer from USA with 55:98 while Canada’s Penny Olekisiak comes third with 56:99.Egypt’s Farida Osman is the top-ranked African at number 12 with a time of 57:83; Jannah Sonnenschein from Mozambique is in 39th position and second in Africa with a time of 1:04:21 while Umurungi is 44th and third in Africa.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw