NEW: Van der Westhuizen makes Olympic debut 

Ellina Mhlanga in Paris, France

ZIMBABWEAN swimmer Paige Van Der Westhuizen made her debut appearance at the Olympics this afternoon with an encouraging performance that saw her winning her heat in the women’s 100m freestyle at the Paris La Defense Arena.

Van der Westhuizen was the first to hit the wall in 58.19 seconds in heat one of the four heats lined up for the day.

Although she fell short of her personal best of 57.34 seconds, the Zimbabwean swimmer will be looking at building on this experience going forward.

She was ranked 25 overall out of 29 swimmers that competed in the event.

“In terms of my race, it wasn’t what I wanted, I am a little bit disappointed with it. But I think I am going to use this to build forward into the next World Championships and look on what I did wrong, learn also to manage my nerves at such a big stage.

“I think it wasn’t far off my best,” said Van der Westhuizen.

Tilly Collymore of Grenada came second in 58.84 seconds.

Botswana’s Maxine Egner was third in 58.98 seconds and Aleka Kylela Persaud from Guyana was fourth in 1 minute 01.29 seconds.

Rana Saadeldin of Sudan placed fifth in 1 minute 04.72 seconds.