Equatorial Guinea Swimmers Take Their Time

S Y D N E Y, Australia, Sept. 22, 2000 -- If nothing else, the swim team from

Equatorial Guinea is consistent.

Following in the charmingly inept wake left by “Eric the Eel,”supermarket cashier Paula Barila took more than a minute to make it50 meters in the Olympic pool.

“I was hurting but the crowd pushed me on,” the 20-year-oldBarila said.

She dog paddled to a time of 1 minute, 3.97 seconds, drawing arousing ovation when she finally touched the wall 39.51 behind topqualifier and world record holder Inge de Bruijn of theNetherlands.

Barila was last out of 73 swimmers who completed the swim — and28.18 away from the next-slowest competitor. There was a name belowher in the final standings, as 12-year-old Fatema A Hameed Gerashiof Bahrain, another wild-card entry, was disqualified for a falsestart.

‘Wonderful Spirit’

FINA, the world governing body of swimming, invited a handful ofcountries to send competitors who didn’t meet qualifying standards,part of an effort to popularize swimming in nontraditional nations.

Equatorial Guinea formed its swimming federation less than ayear ago and sent a team to Sydney even though it has only twopools — both at hotels and less than half the Olympic-sized length.

Eric Moussambani, a 22-year-old student dubbed “Eric the Eel,”became an international celebrity Tuesday after needing almost twominutes to complete the 100 freestyle. He never put his headunderwater and virtually came to a stop with 10 meters to go beforefinally making it to the wall.

Barila, who apparently took lessons at the same place, dove inwith a psuedo-belly flop and was on her way, her head neverventuring below the surface. Her strokes showed some knack forcompetitive swimming in the early stages, but degenerated into adog paddle by the end.

“I think it’s a wonderful spirit,” said Derrick SamuelHeywood, who volunteered to serve as attache for the country’sfledgling Olympic program because he spoke Spanish. “It epitomizesthe feeling of the Olympics. They’re trying to do their best.”

First Time in an Olympic Pool

Barila swam in a store-bought blue swimsuit, a borrowed pair ofgoggles and a “Sydney 2000” cap scrounged from a sympathetic poolworker.

Swimming wasn’t her first love, obviously.

“I wanted to be an air hostess or an actress,” Barila said.“Actually, I play [soccer], and then I heard about swimming. It’sgood to participate in sports.”

Moussambani cheered for his countrywoman from the deck.

“She really did good,” he said. “She never swam in a poollike that before.”

While most people in Equatorial Guinea live near the ocean,there are few competitive swimmers in the west African nation,which is slightly larger than Maryland with a population of400,000.