Swimmer Nikoli Blackman was far from his best in the men's 50-metre freestyle final event of the FINA World Junior Championships in Lima, Peru on Friday night, finishing seventh in a time of 22.83 seconds.
However, he displayed good form in the men's 100m freestyle to send a strong signal of a possible medal.
He went into the event (50m free) as the fourth-fastest swimmer at 22.71, which he produced at the Pan American Swimming Championships at the National Aquatic Centre in June. Only Croatia's Jere Hribar (the fastest time at 22.32), Portugal's Diego Matos (22.35) and Nans Mazellier of France (22.44 seconds) were fastest than him.
Earlier Friday, Blackman posted the same time (22.83) in the second semifinal heat to qualify for the title swim. But, expecting to improve in the final, the Fatima College student could not achieve that, as the Portuguese (Matos) swam ahead of the field to claim the gold medal in a quick time of 21.92 seconds.
Nikolas Antoniou of Cyprus secured the silver in 21.55 seconds and Hribar took the bronze medal in a time of 22.55.
Yesterday, Blackman signalled early intentions of making up for his disappointment in the 50m freestyle by advancing to the semifinals of the 100m freestyle. Swimming out of lane two in heat 11, Blackman was again not at his best but did enough to move on to the next round with a 50.87 seconds performance in sixth position.
He was the last qualifier out of that heat to progress. A joint first-place finish summed up how competitive the heat was, with both Pieter Coetze of South Africa and Mazellier posting 50.09 seconds for the top spot.
Romania's Patrick Sebastian Dinu was third with 50.31 while Matias Santiso (Argentina) with 50.47 and Matheus Pereira of Brazil with 50.75 secured the fourth and fifth positions, respectively. The semifinals were scheduled to take place on Saturday night with the final on Sunday.