By ELIAS CHIPEPO –

ZAMBIA’S Ralph Goveia exited the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games after failing to reach the semi-finals of the 50m butterfly despite finishing second in his qualifying heat at the National Sports Centre Natatorium.
Goveia, who also took part in the 100m butterfly event where he was also bundled out in the qualifying stage, clocked 25.33 seconds to finish behind heat winner Alejandro Buscagila of Argentina, who timed 25.18 seconds.
But his time, just like Buscagila’s, was not good enough to see him into the semi finals as the duo even missed out on the standby list that had Zuhayr Pigot of Suriname and Alexander Kunert of Germany, who timed 25.08 and 25.10 seconds respectively.
The best qualifying time was by Dylan Carter from Trinidad and Tobago who clocked 24.01 seconds.
Meanwhile, runner Sydney Siame takes to the track today in the 100m hoping to win Zambia a first medal but will need to contend Tyler Bowe from the Bahamas who boasts of a personal best (PB) time of 10.42 seconds to his 10.51 seconds.
Siame, a silver medallist at the Africa Youth Games in Botswana, and Tyler are the only two runners with a good time compared to Mohammed Saad (Bahrain) 10.97 seconds, Dius Clauzelma (Saint Lucia) 11.21 seconds, Daniel Lozereau (Mauritius) 10.67 seconds, Kimwaua Makin (Kiribati) 12.09 seconds, Trae Williams (Australia) 10.75 seconds and Moussa Abdoulaye (Benin) 11.50 seconds.
Brian Kasinda, a 200m silver winner at the Africa Youth Games, starts his campaign tomorrow and has the best PB time in the heat which stands at 21.02 seconds.
Kasinda will face competition from Yang Chun-Han of the Chinese Taipei who has a PB of 21.03 seconds while the rest who include Italian Filippo Tortu on 21.42 seconds, Vladislav Grigoryev of Kazakhstan in 21.78 seconds, Daye Abraham from Chad on 23.00 seconds, Dwayne Koroka of Papua New Guinea on 22.98 seconds and Naludol Asavaruengsri from Thailand on 21.78 seconds.
Godfrey Chama, who won bronze in 800m at the Africa Youth Games with a PB of 1:53.09 seconds, also get his medal pursuit on tomorrow when he compete with the likes of Myles Marshall from the United States of America (USA) on 1:48.43 seconds.
Others in the heat are Tom Elmer of Switzerland who has a PB of 1:50.18 minutes, Moussa Yousef of Qatar with a PB time of 1:51.85 seconds, Mohammed Elamrani of Mauritius (1:53.23 seconds) and Tahar Lazaar of Algeria on 1:55.46 seconds.
Zambia’s only female runner Abigail Chongo will also be in action tomorrow in the 200m heats but will need to be her best to finish tops to claim a place in the semi-finals.
Chongo, whose PB time stands at 25.93 seconds, will need to better that time against the likes of Brandee Johnson from the USA who has 23.64 seconds time and Nyatichi Thomas of Kenya on 23.98 seconds.
There is also Melinda Ferenczi of Hungary on 24.11 seconds, Daysiellen Atla of Bahamas on 24.32 seconds, Tegan Wilson of Canada on 24.70 seconds, and Sangay Wangmo of Bhutan on 26.37 seconds but she may not worry much about Eneda Deliu of Albania who has a time of 26. 34 seconds.