… Guyana end with 26 medals at Suriname meet

WITH four medals apiece, Guyana’s top junior swimmers Aleka Persaud and Leon Seaton ended the year on a high note, finishing as the most successful swimmers on the touring team that participated in the Annual VOS End-of-Year Invitational Swim Meet, in Suriname last month.

Guyana collected a total of 26 medals, more than doubling the 11 medals the team raked in at the meet in 2016. The count included 12 gold and four silver medals.
Persaud and Seaton who also won a bronze medal were one of nine swimmers who medalled at the meet, which saw a team of 55 swimmers from Guyana attend this year.

The only other swimming to land gold was Andrew Fowler, who procured a total of three.
The other medal-earners at the meet included little Shareefa Lewis with three silver medals; Trumaine Cole a silver and two bronze; and bronze medallists Nikita Fiedtkou, Patrice Mahaica, Jaleel Anderson and Andica Vieira.

Along with the medals, Persaud also ended the meet with her name in the record books. She broke the records in the Girls’ 9-10 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle events. In the 50m butterfly, Persaud clocked 32.50s, and erased a previous 32.68 seconds record, in the 50m freestyle her time of 29.98s was just inside a previous 30.02s record.
Persaud’s other two gold came in the 100m IM (1:17.98s) and 50m backstroke (36.43s) events in her category.

Patrice Mahaica, was also in this category, and took bronze in the 50m freestyle (32.23s) and 50m backstroke (37.24s).
Anderson won bronze in the Boys’ 9-10 50m freestyle with a time of 30.95 seconds.
Meanwhile, building on the bronze medal he finished with in 2016, Seaton ensured he improved on his performance. Once again swimming in the Boys 11-12 category, the 100m breaststroke was the only race where Seaton was outclassed. With a time of 1:23.65s he took third in the 100m breaststroke, which was won by Feranto Stuger in 1:16.29s.

Seaton then got the better of Stuger in his other events however. He won the 100m freestyle in a time 57.23 seconds, while for the 50m freestyle it took him 25.40 seconds to touch the wall.
He also bagged the 100m butterfly in 1:04.36s, and took just 1:09.88s to champion the 100m backstroke.

Fowler took his medals swimming in the Boys’ 18 and over category, ruling in the 100m IM (1:06.58s), 100m freestyle (53.98s) and 50m freestyle (24.08s).
Also in this category was Cole, who finished behind Fowler in the 100m freestyle (59.90s). He was third in the 100m IM (1:10.16s) and 100m butterfly (1:09.56s).

The youngest medallists on the team, Lewis and Vieira collected their medals while performing in the Girls’ 7-8 category,. Lewis took silver in the 50m breaststroke (51.82s), 50m freestyle (38.34s) and 50m backstroke (47.67s); Vieira took a bronze in the 50m freestyle (39.17s).

Swimming in the Girls’ 15-17 category, Fiedtkou took bronze in the 100m IM (1:18.52s) and 50m freestyle (29.19s) events.