– Scott says Persaud and Noel will peak for Paris Olympics

GUYANA Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) President Dwayne Scott says that Aleka Persaud and Raekwon Noel will peak heading into the summer Olympic games.
The athletes are the country’s lone male and female swimmers at the ongoing World Aquatics Championship in Doha, Qatar.

Scott told Chronicle Sports, “They put up credible times but it is early in the season, so we didn’t expect them to be peaking now, as they come closer to the games, we know that we will see better times.”

He is encouraged to see how the swimmers are doing months out from the summer Olympics, adding that, “it is not either of their best times but it was as expected.”
In the pool on Saturday Aleka Persaud was again off her best when she competed in her favorite event.

Persaud going into heat six ranked number two finished in a time of 28.60 seconds to place 9th overall with Bolivia’s Adriana Giles first in 26.60 seconds.

Persaud went into the race with a personal best time of 27.42 seconds which is the national record and that would have placed her in second place.

However, her execution was off as she finished near bottom in her second event of the championship.

The 17-year-old finished 8th place in her 100-meter freestyle on Thursday also with a slower time than her PB (personal best).

Meanwhile, Raekwon Noel captured two podium finishes in his 100 butterfly and 100 meters freestyle.

In the 100 meters butterfly on Friday, Noel coming out of lane two, finished well to clinch second place behind St Lucia’s Jayhan Odlum-Smith in 56.24.

Odlum-Smith stopped the clock first in 55.66 seconds.

Third went to Nigeria’s Clinton Opute with a time of 56.95.

Noel also won his 100-meter freestyle heat on Wednesday beating off strong challenge from swimmer Jash Tarere from Papua New Guinea.

He finished in 52.59 seconds, a far cry from his PB of 51.98 seconds.

Persaud returns to England and Noel is set to return to the United States where they will continue to ramp up their efforts and gain enough ranking points to represent Guyana at the Paris Olympic games later this year.