Bangladeshi swimmer Samiul Islam Rafi finished 69th among 79 participants in the 100m freestyle event of Paris Olympics today, despite slightly improving on his personal best timing,

Samiul, who trained in Thailand ahead of the Games, took 53.10 seconds to finish fifth among eight competitors in his heat at the La Defense Arena in Paris.

His previous best was 53.12 seconds, thereby the 19-year-old improved his timing by 0.02 seconds. 

Jack Alexy of USA produced the fastest timing in the heats at 47.57 seconds while 16th and last qualifier, Sunwoo Hwang, timed 48.41 seconds.