THE country’s top female swimmer, Olympian Aleka Persaud bounced back after a string of average performances to break Guyana’s 50-metre butterfly record.
Persaud, who has returned to Guyana recently, upped her game to reset the record during the ongoing World Aquatics Swimming Championship in Budapest, Hungary.
The meet which swam off on Tuesday saw the 18-year-old Guyanese swimming ace eclipsing her own national record of 29.13 second in the short course meet, which is swam in a 25-meter pool.
The country’s two-time Olympic representative set a new national record of 28.34 seconds to finish third in heat number 2.
The heat was won by Nicaragua’s 25 years old swimmer Maria Schutzmeier in 27.24 second with Kyrgyzstan’s Elizaveta Pecherskikh second in 27.60 seconds.
Persaud will still now advance to the semifinal after finishing 43rd overall out of 55 swimmers with USA’s Gretchen Walsh topping the list with a time of 24.02 seconds.
Persaud who is the nation’s lone representative at the World Championship will get back into the pool on December 15th to compete in the women 50-metre freestyle.
She is being coached at the meet by Linden’s Christol Thom.