WITH less than two weeks before the South American Swimming and Diving Championships unfold in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the confidence is growing among the Guyanese team who are set to participate. Andre Fowler, Leon Seaton and Jamila Sanmoogan will use this rare international event as a stepping stone to tune their performances after the sport was forced into a yearlong hiatus when COVID-19 appeared. Seaton said, “I’m thankful for the opportunity to participate in the South America Championships in Argentina. I feel very elated that I will have a chance to test my skills and finally have an understanding of how I’ve been training and what I need to improve on. And to be honest, at the swim meet I am looking for great improvement in each of my events, new personal-best times.” Fowler’s sentiments almost echoed that of Seaton’s. He said, “First of all, I’m grateful for the opportunity to be able to participate at the games.

I’ve been doing training outside of the pool for about a year now and I only got permission from the minister mid-January to do regular training, as in, swimming at the pool.” He continued: “So this competition would be a great exposure and one way that I can gauge my performance at the moment with just a month and a half of training and see where I stand in terms of times.” In July 2019, these three attended the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, and were exceptional, by significantly improving their personal records. Seaton registered his personal best in the 50m butterfly (28.54s) and the 50m backstroke (29.92s) while Sanmoogan, who is currently training locally,, recorded her personal-best performances in both the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle. At the meet, Fowler clocked his personal best in the 100m freestyle but was not as successful when he attempted the 50m freestyle. The SA Swimming and Diving Championships are set for March 14-29.