OLYMPIC coach, Sean Baksh, said that he is buoyed by the performance of his top female swimmer Aleka Persaud in her first official swim of the year.
The Guyanese had a gold medal showing at the just concluded Barbados Invitational clubs meet in Bridgetown.

According to Baksh, “This is her first competition for the year, a primer towards worlds (World Championship). We are checking to see where we are, what we need to work on to get a good result out of worlds. This (Barbados Invitational) was good for us; she is on target in the 100 butterfly and we got to do some work on the 100 freestyle; otherwise it was good.”
The 22nd edition of the World Aquatics Championships will take place from July 11 – August 3 2025 in Singapore.

Persaud broke the country’s national record in the 100-metre butterfly on her way to a gold medal at the top Barbados swim meet over the weekend.
She went into the meet with a record of 1 minute 05.70 seconds which she reduced to a new national record of 1 minute 04.93 seconds.
She also picked up a bronze medal in the 50 metres freestyle.

Meanwhile president of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association, Yolema Phillps, confirmed that Persaud will join fellow Guyanese Olympian and USA based Raekwon Noel as the nation’s two representatives.

The young land shark, Noel, is in fine form after capturing four gold medals at the PANAM Aquatics Championship in Colombia earlier this month.
Noel won gold in the 100 metres backstroke, 400 metres freestyle, 100 metres butterfly and 200 metres butterfly setting new national records in all four events.
Both Persaud and Noel represented Guyana at the Paris summer games last year with Persaud also featuring at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021.

The competition will witness over 2,500 athletes participating at these World Aquatics Championships, representing World Aquatics’ 210 national member federations across the six aquatic sports with Guyana to feature only in the swimming aspect.