GUYANA’S Aleka Persaud will be in action today from 06:30hrs, in the Women’s 50m freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics.
Persaud’s entry time of 28.10 seconds is faster than the seven other competitions in Heat 4 of the event that will see only 16 fastest times (from 11 Heats) advance to the semi-finals.
President of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA), Dwayne Scott, told Chronicle Sport, “Aleka, as I’ve said before, is doing pretty decent times. She had more time than Andrew (Fowler) because she was continuously in the pool, she didn’t have some setbacks that Andrew had as it relates to injuries.”
“So we hope that she puts up a faster time, at least her fastest time; that’s the expectation. We expect her to put up her personal best at the Olympics,” Scott said.
Born February 24, 2006, Persaud is Guyana’s youngest-ever Olympian. Brittany Van Lange previously held the record when she competed at the 2012 Olympics. Van Lange at the time was 15 years old, but turned 16 three months after the London Games.
Swimming has been an Olympic sport since 1896 and the first swimmer, male or female, to represent Guyana at the Olympic Games was Linden’s Onan Thom at the 2004 event in Athens, Greece. He was 20 years old at the time. (Rawle Toney)