Ghana’s swimming medal hopeful Abeiku Jackson has until the 7pm Argentina time (2200GMT) to know whether he will qualify for the semi-finals men’s 100m butterfly event after placing second in heat three of six with a new personal best of 54.52 seconds.

The 18-year-old is number two on the reserve qualifiers’ list with best of time and will hope that at least two swimmers do not show up for the final round of heats for the evening session.

The decorated swimmer had to fend off stiff competition from Hong Kong’s Nicholas and Alex Ahtianen from Estonia who placed third and fourth with 55.02 and 55.05 seconds respectively. The Ghanaian improved his personal best by 0.28 seconds and will hope to improve upon it when he does qualify to the semi-finals.

“It has taken a lot of hard work to get here. All I’ve been doing over the past months is to work on my time. It has not been easy but I am happy for today’s feat. I will continue to work on it until I get there.” Abeiku Jackson adds “if I do not make it to the next round, I will just put it behind me and focus on my next event, which is the 50m butterfly on Wednesday. I do not want Ghanaians to lower their expectations of me, they should just keep me and all the other athletes in their prayers.”

His coach Jonathan Amoako-Attah is “excited that my swimmer has improved on his personal best. We are not done yet, we will keep improving for future events.” Jackson made history in 2016 as Ghana’s first male Olympic swimmer after competing in the 200 metres freestyle at the Summer Olympics.

But before making an appearance at the competition, he had already won 34 gold medals and one silver medal at various international swimming competitions. He won two silver and two bronze in the 100m freestyle and fly and 50m freestyle and fly at this year’s All Africa Games held in Algeria.