A swimmer from Equatorial New Guinea epitomised the spirit of the Olympics earlier this morning struggling alone through a 100m freestyle heat after two other swimmers were disqualified.

The largely Australian crowd cheered as Eric Moussambani crawled home in one minute 52.72 seconds after his only two competitors in the first heat. Karim Bare of Nigeria and Frakhod Oripov of Tajikistan, were barred for jumping the start.

Moussamba finished in possibly the worst time ever seen at Games level, it was over one minute outside the world record. But the crowd loved it.

While Moussambani received a hero's adulation when he finally touched the wall, spare a thought for Bare and Oripov who came to Australia to swim only one race each - and did not get to do it.