GUYANA’s Niall Roberts is all confident before he dives into the pool at the International Swimming Federation (FINA) World Aquatic Championships, in Barcelona, Spain, where he today starts off the Guyana team’s participation.

Roberts will be in today’s 50m butterfly, as the first day in the swimming races begin at the prominent event.
“I feel confident I’ll do well. There is good competition, there is not much separating myself with 3 others [in my heat] so it’s going to be a fun race to see who touches [the wall] first.
I’m in the second heat of nine and I’m ranked third in my heat. I’m also ranked 64 overall at the moment and I’m looking to drop that world ranking.” the Olympian said yesterday.
Roberts is entering the event with an entry time of 26.70 seconds, while entry time in the heat is led by Sri Lanka’s Achchige Kalu who has a time of 26.64 seconds. Mozambique’s Valdo Lourenco has an entry time of 26.68 seconds.
Of the total 10 swimmers in Roberts’ heat another three also have timings just under 27 seconds. The event’s leading swimmer down in heat one is France’s Frederick Bousquet,  who comes of the starting blocks with a time of 23.00 seconds, just inside the 23.96 seconds men’s “A” qualifying time.
Roberts is part of a three -member team participating at the Championships, which also includes Earlando McRae and fellow Olympian Britany van Lange.
The swimmers were accompanied by coach Stephanie Fraser, while Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) Secretary, Dee George is also present to represent the national body at the FINA Congress being held concurrently with the Championships.
Each of the swimmers will be participating in the maximum two events, with McRae expected to be next in the pool when he participates in the 50m Breaststroke. With an entry time of 33.38 seconds, McRae is seeded third in the second out of nine heats, where he will also compete against nine other swimmers.
In front of McRae is Uganda’s Joshua Tibatemwa (32.48s) and Seychelles’ Andre Adam (32.58s).
McRae and Roberts were also originally both expected to be in the men’s 50m freestyle, which swims off on Tuesday. However, so far only Roberts’ has been included in the men’s 50m freestyle line up as McRae’s participation is still tentative after it was conveyed that possibly only one unqualified swimmer from the same country can participate in the same event. Coach Fraser is said to be sorting out the issue.
Roberts is in the fifth heat of the 50m freestyle with an entry time of 24.84 seconds, once again swimming against nine other swimmers.
Van Lange gets into things on Monday August 5 where she swims in  the women’s 100m freestyle. The sixteen year old will also close off Guyana’s participation when she swims the women’s 50m freestyle on Wednesday August 7.
In the 100m freestyle, van Lange leads the second out of eight heats with an entry time of 1:01.62s, she also has the leading entry time in the third heat of the women’s 50m freestyle with an entry time of 28.80 seconds.