Nicola Muscat places 53rd in the women’s 50m freestyle

22-year-old swimmer Nicola Muscat failed to reach the semi-finals of the 50m freestyle competition at the Rio Olympics after finishing 53rd with 26.60 seconds.

She was competing alongside 87 other athletes.

The result put her 1.75 seconds behind Etiene Medeiros who took the last qualifying spot.

Danish swimmer Pernille Blume took first place as she finished the race in 24.23 seconds, followed by Francesca Halsall from Great Britian who finished in 24.42 seconds, just ahead of Aliaksandra Herasimenia from Belarus who completed the race in 24.40 seconds.

The semi-final will take place tomorrow at 4am local time, while the finalists will compete for a medal on Sunday at 3am local time.