From Orin Gordon
in London
Britany van Lange, 15, the baby of the Guyana team, takes to the pool today (Wednesday) to try to reverse a couple of early defeats for Team Guyana at the 2012 Olympics in London.
Van Lange competes in the heats of the women’s 100 metres freestyle.
The confident and poised teenager has tasted world class competition before in world championships, but she recognizes that the Olympics are a much bigger stage
“I feel nervous, a bit anxious that I’ve reached the Olympics, which is I guess the highest level of sports in the world,” she said.
“I’d just like to go out there and do my best and make my country proud,” she added.
The Olympic champion and world record holder, Britta Steffen from Germany, is at 28, almost twice Brittany’s age and vastly more experienced.
It will be tough for her and she knows it. The top swimmers in the field are professionals, and not distracted by high school and homework that the Bishops’ High student needs to grapple with.
“This is their career; this is their life choice; this is the path they want to take and I guess they pretty much devote all their time to their career,” van Lange mused.
Van Lange’s personal best (PB) for the distance is 1.01.39s. The world record, held by Steffen, 53.30, more than eight seconds faster. In a swim sprint, it’s a gulf.
“For me, I would like to make a new PB. Go up there, try my best, and make a new PB.”
Van Lange occupies the position of baby of the team that Niall Roberts held in Beijing four years ago.
Roberts, now 21, competed earlier yesterday in the men’s 100 freestyle. He finished fourth in his heat and did not make the last 16 fastest swimmers.
Roberts’s competition in London is led by the Brazilian Cesar Filho, who won in Beijing.
A disappointed Roberts said he struggled to beat the cold, a problem he’d experienced in a different way in Beijing four years earlier.
He had aimed before the race to beat his personal best of 54.99s with a time of 53.00. He fell well short of his PB with 55.66s.
Months of 5am practice starts, early nights in, and avoiding fast food and drink came to naught, but Roberts has a couple of Olympics yet left in him.
Roberts has struck a posed presence as an ambassador for team Guyana in London, chatting easily and dealing patiently with the multiple requests from London resident Guyanese who flocked to the High Commission at the weekend to meet the team.
Raul Lall, competing at judo, turned 18 last Friday, the day of the opening ceremony in which he took part.
By Saturday noon his Olympic games were over. Worse, it was over in less than a minute—- the time he took to be pinned by his opponent from Saudi Arabia.
Such cruel brevity is the life of a judoka, and the young man from St Cuthbert’s was philosophical about his loss.
The head of the Guyana team K. Juman Yassin, says that for Lall and the other young athletes such as Van Lange, it’s essentially about giving them a taste of the world’s biggest competition, and preparing them for more successful outings in future.
