The Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) enjoyed a fruitful 2021 with the female athletes taking most of the spotlight.
According to GASA president, Dwayne Scott, “2021 was a very interesting year for GASA, it started out with two athletes at the South American games then we moved on to the Olympics where we had young Aleka Persaud and Andrew Fowler representing Guyana.
“Subsequently, we were able to send a sizable contingent to the Junior South American Championships. We had excellent representation at the Junior Pan Am [Games] and subsequently four athletes at the FINA World Championships in Abu Dhabi less than a month ago. All of these are tremendous achievements, we would have seen records being reset,” he added.
Persaud has been the star swimmer, shattering record after record. The 15-year-old became the first female Guyanese to go under 27 seconds (s) in the 50m Freestyle when she stopped the clock at 26.86s in the FINA World Championships.
The St. Joseph High School student now holds the record for both Short Course and Long Course (50m). The swimmer also broke the 100m Freestyle record after clocking in at 59.70s to become the first female to go below one minute in the category.
“We have seen an upsurge in performance by our females and we continue to see excellent performances by all the athletes… closing the year we had all the athletes at the World Championships putting their personal bests and the females breaking national records,” Scott remarked.
Additionally, Patrice Mahaica rewrote the 50m Backstroke record with a time of 32.91s. Fowler managed a personal best timings of 24.58s in the 50m freestyle and 25.95s in the 50m Butterfly. Raekwon Noel also ended the year with five personal best timings coming from the 50m Freestyle (27.00s), 100m Freestyle (57.64s), 200m Freestyle (2:06.28s), 50m Butterfly (27.94s) and 100m Butterfly (1:00.25s).
Scott noted, “All of these things could not have been achieved without the contributions of the entire fraternity, the coaches, the parents and the athletes.”
The GASA president revealed that challenges throughout the year were mostly financial as well as facility related given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“This of course did not happen without any challenges or difficulty, our biggest challenge was financing these events, funding the activity and participation and preparation of the athletes during a time of pandemic when cash is king and access to facility is a challenge but we continue to work nonetheless, we continue to do good things.”
