Pakistan swimmer Haseeb Tariq's Tokyo Olympics campaign comes to an end

Swimmer Haseeb Tariq's Tokyo Olympics 2020 campaign ended after he finished 62nd out of 70 contestants in the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition on Tuesday.

Haseeb, who won a bronze for Pakistan in the 100-m backstroke at the 2016 South Asian Games, finished with a time of 53.81 seconds, falling short of his personal best of 53.34 seconds, also a national record, set during the 2019 FINA World Swimming Championship.

The national champion finished 6th in the second heat and 62nd overall out of 70 swimmers in action for the 100-meter freestyle. He was 5.37s behind the 16th player who qualified for the semi-finals.

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Haseeb is the third Pakistani athlete, out of a contingent of 10, to crash out of the Olympics after the losses of Mahoor Shahzad in badminton and Talha Talib in weightlifting.

Earlier in the day, Mahoor’s Olympics journey ended after she lost her second consecutive match against Great Britain’s Kirsty Gilmour. The 24-year-old displayed an improved show in her second match, but could not cross the victory line. The Karachi-born lost both sets with the same score of 21-14 and 21-14.

The two athletes will return to Pakistan later on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Pakistani weightlifter Talha Talib, who competed in the 67kg category, garnered appreciation from all over the country for his performance on Saturday.

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He became an instant sensation after finishing fifth in the 67-kg weightlifting category, narrowly missing the bronze, which could have been Pakistan’s first Olympic medal since 1992.

The Gujranwala-born weightlifter was at the top of the chart before being surpassed by athletes from China, Colombia, and Italy in the final attempts.

He lifted 150 kg in snatch, which is now a national record, and managed to lift 166 kg at clean and jerk in the second attempt, and 170 kg in his third attempt to have his overall lift of 320 kg.

Chinese athlete Chen Lijun won the gold with a combined lift of 332kg, Colombia's Luis Javier Mosquera Lozano bagged silver with 331kg and Italy's Mirko Zanni took the bronze with 322kg in the same category.