Olympian swimmers, Andrew Fowler and Aleka Persaud will lead Guyana’s contingent to the 15th World Swimming Championships in Abu Dubai from December 15-22.
The duo was named along with Raekwon Noel and Patrice Mahaica following a trial meet yesterday at the National Aquatic Centre, Liliendaal.
Across 19 events and intermittent rain and heavy winds, Orca Speed’s Persaud stopped the clock at one minute, one second and 51 milliseconds (01:01:51s) to win the girls 100m freestyle event ahead of Mahaica (01:03:62s).
Persaud also won the 50m freestyle event in 27:74s while Mahaica finished second in 28:89. In the girls 50m butterfly event, Persaud won in a time of 29:81s.
In the boy’s 100m freestyle event, Fowler ended with a time of 54:22s, 34 milliseconds ahead of Leon Seaton (54:56s) second and Noel (55:39s) third.
The 25-year-old Fowler also dominated the 50m freestyle event in 24:96s. He was closely followed by Seaton (25:15s), 2016 Olympian Hannibal Gaskin (25:26s) and Mahaica (25:50s).
Noel, however, won the boys 100m butterfly event in 58:98s as well as the 200m freestyle event in 2:01:51s. Gaskin won the 50m butterfly event.
According to Guyana Amateur Swimming Association president, Dwayne Scott, “Raekwon was selected over Leon because coming down to the event he would have accumulated more FINA points. The decision to select was discussed prior to and it was agreed that FINA points would have been the selection criteria.”
He continued, “So while you might have seen the results where Seaton would have won over Noel in some of the events they would have taken part in, the accumulation of points would have been for the times swam in the events and it’s obvious from the report that Seaton’s times were slower than some of his best times which would have resulted in him not accumulating enough points…Of course we would like to have Seaton but we have to be fair and stick to what criteria we have agreed to work with.”
Nevertheless, Scott reckoned that the body was happy with the outcome of the event and acknowledge courtesy to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Covid-19 Task Force for granting approval.
It was the work of the coaches that came under the most praise in light of the circumstances.
“We would like to thank the clubs for putting their athletes up and making sure that we can put this event together and the coaches for the work they have been doing with the athletes. In spite of us being in the middle of a pandemic and the limited access to the pool, the work that the coaches were doing were on display today, we have seen improvement in every area, in every athlete and that for us is remarkable. It’s unfortunate that we had to do such a short event, we would have loved to have a two-day event but we have to be respectful of the conditions we live in,” he said.
GASA will now turn their attention to preparing the athletes for the major event.
