Ullalmath finishes last in 1500m freestyle

The 20-year-old from Bangalore had qualified for the Olympics under FINA’s strange “universality” clause while four of the country’s more fancied swimmers had failed to make it to the Games.

Ullalmath was at the rear from the very beginning and he finished the race more than 40 seconds behind the sixth-place finisher and more than one minute after the heat winner Arturo Perez Ferrer of Mexico completed the race.

Ullalmath could not even touch his personal best of 15:59.33 that had earned him a silver at the Asian age group championship in Jakarta last year.