 Making his Summer Olympics debut , Jidou El Moctar was notable for carrying the Mauritania flag at the opening ceremony . He qualified for the Summer Olympics via a wildcard , as his best time , 23 @.@ 16 seconds , was 2 @.@ 51 seconds slower than the " B " qualifying standard for his event , the 200 meters . He competed on 7 August in Heat 1 against seven other athletes . He ran a time of 22 @.@ 94 seconds , finishing last but achieving a personal best time . Kazakhstan 's Vyacheslav Muravyev ranked ahead of him with a time of 21 @.@ 75 seconds in a heat led by eventual gold medalist of the event , Jamaica 's Usain Bolt ( 20 @.@ 39 seconds ) . Overall , Moctar ranked 53rd out of 55 athletes competing and was 2 @.@ 31 seconds behind the slowest athlete that progressed to the semi @-@ finals . Therefore , that was the end of his competition . 
