PLYMOUTH Leander’s Ben Proud was unable to progress through to the semi-finals of the men’s 100m freestyle event at the Rio Olympics on Tuesday.
Proud clocked 49.14 seconds for the two-length race, which was half-a-second outside his personal best of 48.52.
It only ranked him 29th overall out of the 59 swimmers taking part.
However, the 100m freestyle race is not Proud’s main event. His favourite distance is the 50m and he will go in that freestyle competition on Thursday.
Proud has been placed in heat 10 of the ‘splash and dash’ in two days’ time, where he will line up next to speedy American Adrian Nathan.
The city swimmer showed his 50m speed in his opening race but was unable to keep it going after the turn.
Although slightly disappointed with his time, Proud is now looking forward to Thursday race.
“I’ll just focus on the 50 now,” said Proud afterwards.
The University of St Mark and St John student added: “If felt like a good swim, but that time is far from where I want to be.
“It was my first swim of the meet and you never know how it is going to go.
“In training I have been swimming faster than I have ever been, but getting the race right at the time just did not happen.”
Proud had been hoping to secure a place on Great Britain’s 4x100m medley relay team, who have a real chance of winning a medal.
But fellow Brit Duncan Scott swam a new national record time of 48.01 seconds in Tuesday’s heats, which will mean he will almost certainly anchor the relay leg.