TWO-TIME Olympian Aleka Persaud on Saturday put in a worthy performance at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships, which concludes today in Budapest, Hungary.
Persaud, who broke her own national 50-metre butterfly record on Tuesday, competed in her final event on Saturday, the women 50 metres freestyle.

The 18-year-old swimmer who also holds the national 50 metres freestyle record of 26.42 seconds achieved in 2022 in Australia, finished her pet event in 27.15 seconds.
She looked on course at the half-way mark to lower her record but struggled on the turn and lost ground to be off the mark as she finished sixth place in heat number four.

Her heat was won by Varsenik Manucharyan of Armenia in 26.26 seconds, with Antigua’s Aunjelique Liddie second in 26.47 and Papua New Guinea’s Jhnayali Tokome-Garap third.

USA Gretchen Walsh was the top qualifier out of the heats in 23.02 seconds with only 16 swimmers advancing to the semis.

The young swimmer who is the country’s lone representative at the meet, despite setting a new national record of 28.34 seconds and finishing third in her heat on Monday, did not advance to the semifinal after finishing 43rd.
Persaud holds the national record in the 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly and women 200 individual medley and is making a resurgence after a string of average performances over the past year.
She is being coached by Linden’s Christol Thom at the World Aquatics Swimming Championship.