The Abu Dhabi-born Serb, who trains with Hamilton Aquatics in Dubai, clocked 3:46.78 to place seventh in his heat and 14th overall, with only the top eight swimmers advancing directly into the final.
Stjepanovic, who won European Championships gold in the event two years ago, will immediately shift his focus to Sunday’s marquee 200m freestyle, which is his signature race.
“I’m not really concerned with whether I medal or not, the main thing is to do a best time and if I do a best time it automatically means I’m actually close to a medal,” Stjepanovic told Sport360 in Dubai before travelling to Brazil.
“I like to just focus on myself and try to better myself and what I do and not what other people can do. That’s how I sort of keep my head on. I like to race so whether or not, whoever is next to me, I will race that person, whether it be the world champion or Olympic champion, it doesn’t matter, I will go for it and I will give everything I have to win.”
The Serb took 200 free silver at the European Championships in London in May and said he had a few things to improve on ahead of Rio.
“The main thing I think was being able to pace the race properly and just not tightening up in the last 15 because I actually lost the gold medal in the 200m freestyle purely because in the last 15 I sort of cramped up and couldn’t finish the race as well as I could have,” said the 22-year-old.
“So it’s about working on that… Working on lactic tolerance and being able to buffer that lactic acid out of my system so that those last 15 I can go even harder into the wall.”
3:46:78 @VelStjepanovic good effort little man, waiting for the next one tomorrow #RioOlympics2016 #swimming #heat7 pic.twitter.com/CBVeiSHJ2o
— Ace Stjepanovic (@acetheninjaserb) August 6, 2016
On Saturday in Rio, American Conor Dwyer went fastest in the 400m freestyle heats with a time of 3:43.42.
Egypt’s Marwan El Kamash won Heat 4 with a personal best time of 3:47.43 to place 16th overall. His compatriot Ahmed Akram, the Youth Olympic champion in the 800m freestyle, clocked 3:49.46 to place 27th in the 400.
Tunisian Ahmed Mathlouthi swam 3:52.00 to finish second in Heat 2 and 35th overall.
