Bangladesh swimmers Ariful Islam and Junayna Ahmed managed to put up their best performances in their respective 50m freestyle heat events at the Tokyo Olympics today. However, their individual timings were not enough to qualify for the next round.  

Ariful finished 51st among 73 competitors after clocking 24.92 seconds, having bettered his previous best of 28.81 made in 2019 World Championships, but eventually, his score was far away from Pawal Juraszek, who secured the final spot to qualify for the 16-swimmer semi-final with a time of 21.97 seconds.  

England-born swimmer Junayna had also suffered the same fate in the women's 50m freestyle heat event after finishing 68th among 81 competitors. The teenage swimmer crossed the distance with a time of 29.78 seconds, some 5.01 seconds more than Dutch swimmer Femke Heemskerk, who was the last one to enter the 16-swimmer semi-final with a time of 24.77 seconds. 

The 18-year-old swimmer however improved on 30.96 seconds, the timing she had made during the 2019 World Championships in Guwanji, Korea.