Niall Roberts of the Dorado Swim Club completed 200 lengths (4.752km) of the Colgrain Pool yesterday morning at the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association’s Swim-A-Thon.
The 16-year-old started swimming at just around 8am and never ceased until he arose from the pool approximately 95 minutes later.
The nature of the event required swimmers to collect monetary contributions for an allotted number of lengths of the 25-yard pool and swim the corresponding amount of lengths.
However, many of the swimmers swam much more than they were sponsored for.
The minimum contribution per length was $20 but some swimmers received sponsorship ranging from $100 upward.
The maximum distance that GASA allowed each participant to swim was 200 lengths or what distance they could achieve at the end of two hours.
Roberts, however, did not seem to need the full two hours as he swam the maximum amount of lengths quickly enough to get out of the water, shower and cheer the remaining participants.
He was the fastest swimmer to complete 100 lengths and the only swimmer to swim more than three miles in the pool.
The Swim-A-Thon proved to be a big hit among the junior swimmers, many of whom could not get enough of the water.
Jamel and Amar Ramsook swam for the full two hours and completed 140 and 136 lengths respectively while Haresh Bhagwan completed 136 and Matthew Hanover 100 lengths.
Aureya Payne completed 104 lengths while Soroya Simmons made a late entrance and remarkably completed 110 lengths in just about 50 minutes.
Noelle Smith completed 102 lengths with time to spare while Mark Jordan completed 120 lengths and Henk Lowe and Athena Foo completed 100 lengths each.
GASA Secretary Karen Pilgrim led by example and spent all of the allotted two hours in the pool to complete 134 lengths (two miles).
According to the GASA, the Swim-A-thon was its response to the Ministry of Health’s Million-Mile Chal-lenge which was aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles among all Guyanese.
The Swim-A-thon also marked the 100th Anniversary of FINA, and served as a fund-raising activity for the GASA.
