Andrew Chetcuti (second from left) on the starting blocks in the 100 metres freestyle heats.
Maltese swimmer Andrew Chetcuti stormed to second place in the 100 metres freestyle heats at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday.
Chetcuti was the second member of Team Malta in action in Tokyo on Tuesday after earlier in the day Yazmin Zammit Stevens took part in the qualifying round of the 64kg category.
Racing in the third heat of the event, Chetcuti stormed out of the blocks to finish the two-lap race in a time of 51.47 seconds.
His time was just over half a second slower than his own national record of 50.97 he had set in Atlanta, US, in 2017.
Chetcuti finished the race in second place, just behind Mokhtar Al-Yamani, of Yemen, who topped the charts in 50.52 seconds.
United Arab Emirates swimmer Yousouf Almatrooshi placed third in 51.50 seconds.
For Chetcuti this was his third successive appearance in an Olympic Games after representing Malta at London 2012 and the Rio Olympics four years ago.
