RAEKWON Noel, Leon Seaton and Lian Winter are set to once again return to represent Guyana at the CARIFTA Swimming Championships, along with first-timers Aleka Persaud and Patrice Mahaica, after the quintet of swimmers clinched qualifying times in varying events last weekend at the Annual Mash Meet at the National Aquatic Centre.

Seaton, Winter, and Mahaica have all so far qualified for one event apiece, Persaud made the time in two events while Noel managed to close in on qualifying time (QT) in three of his events last weekend.

Noel, who swam in the Boys’ 11-12 category last year, has moved up to the Boys’ 13-14, swimming QT in the 200m IM, 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle. He cut it close in the 200m freestyle where he completed the race in 2:19.47s, only just inside the 2:20.4s QT.
In the 400m freestyle he was gunning after a 5:11.4s, and comfortably covered the race in 4:56.17s. In the 200 IM he clocked 2:41.53s, inside the 2:44.1s QT. Clocking 2:44.87s for second place in this race, Ethan Gonsalves just missed out on making the team.

However, with the Championships set for March 30 – April 4, swimmers still have the opportunity to qualify for the team.
Also in the Boys’ 13-14 category, Seaton made a qualifying time in the 50m freestyle after he finished the race in 25.35 secs, beating the 26.02 secs QT.

Winter had her luck in the Girls’ 13-14 200m butterfly. With her only competition being the clock Winter raced to 3:04.90s four seconds shy of the qualifying time in this event.
Mahaica and Persaud are both in the Girls’ 11-12 category. Persaud just made it past the mark in the 50m freestyle (30.12s) and 50m butterfly (32.38s).

With the QT set at 34.75 secs in the 50m backstroke, Mahaica barely made inside after clocking 34.72secs in the race.