Eric Moussambani emerged as a sensation of the Olympics on Tuesday when he competed in the preliminary stages of the men's 100 metre freestyle on his own - soon after learning to swim.

The 22-year-old from Equatorial Guinea was a far-from-convincing sight in the water, missing out on the Olympic record by 64 seconds.

Moussambani almost came to a stop near the end but afterwards hailed the crowd for helping him through his big day.

His only two rivals in the heat - Nigeria's Karim Bare and Tajikstan's Farkhod Oripov - had both been disqualified for false starts.

So it left Moussambani, racing in a 50metre pool for the first time in his life, to compete on his own.

He never put his head under water and after reaching the wall in a time of 1min 52.72secs - Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband managed the distance in 47.84secs, said through an interpreter: "I want to send hugs and kisses to the crowd - it was their cheering that kept me going."

Moussambani was invited to the Olympics - his first trip overseas - even though he did not meet qualifying standards designed to weed out marginal entries like Britain's Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards, whose hapless performance in ski jumping at the 1988 Winter Games earned international attention.

FINA, swimming's governing body, issued several wild-card invitations into the Olympics as a way of spreading the sport.

That certainly applies to Moussambani, who hails from the tiny nation on the west coast of Africa and trains in a 20metre pool with no lane markers.

He added: "I didn't want to swim the 100metres, but my coach told me that I should do it anyway.

"I thought it was too much."

Moussambani arrived at the Olympic pool bright and early to compete in the first heat of the morning against two similar entrants.

It became a one-man race - Moussambani against the water - when the other swimmers inexplicably jumped in together before the start buzzer and were disqualified.

Moussambani was timed - without an hourglass - at one minute 52.72 seconds. That was more than a minute longer than the fastest swimmers and more than seven seconds slower than van den Hoogenband's world record in the 200.

Once he had got his breath back, Moussambani was an instant media star, stopping for interviews with dozens of reporters and camera crews in the mixed zone. He smiled and cheerfully recounted his ordeal.

When he got back to his room at the athletes' village some had put up a sign: "Home of Eric the Swimmer."

Now he has his sights set on competing in the 2004 Games in Athens and said: "I want to continue swimming - I love the Olympics."