By Kiev Chesney

Niall Roberts, Guyana’s youngest and only locally-based participant at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games currently underway in China is set to compete on Thursday at 6:33pm (Beijing time) in the men’s 50 metre freestyle event.

Niall Roberts

Roberts, who is just 17-years-old, will be swimming out of lane eight in the sixth of 13 heats in his debut at the Olympics.

Secretary of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) Dr. Karen Pilgrim said yesterday that being placed in heat six was a small accomplishment for GASA.

“Having him compete is already a huge accomplishment for GASA. He was placed in the heat six and that says that he is better than almost half of the participant listed for the event because the athletes are placed in heats according to their qualifying time-fastest in heat 13 and slowest in heat one,” she explained.

The start-list for heat 6 in Thursday’s event is as follows.

1. Daniel Lee, Sri Lanka (24.99s)

2. Luke Hall, Swaziland (24.88s)

3. Mohamed Attoumane, Comoros (24.54)

4. Yellow Yei Yah, Nigeria (23.93)

5. Rodion Davelaar Rodion, Netherlands Antilles (24.10s)

6. Anas Hamadeh, Jordan (24.79s)

7. Chakyl Camal, Mozambique (24.98s)

8. Niall Roberts, Guyana (25.37s).

The world record holder in the event is 23-year-old Australian Eamon Sullivan who qualified for the event with the new mark of 21.28s (WR) in March this year.

He will be swimming out of lane four in heat 13.

Roberts on the other hand, qualified for the event after being selected by the international swimming body, FINA based on his performance at the last long-course (50m size pool) World Championships which was held in Melbourne Australia last year.