By Kiev Chesney
Top under-18 male swimmer Niall Roberts was in excellent form yesterday at the Colgrain pool breezing to three commanding victories in the Guyana Amateur Swimming Assoc-iations (GASA) Independ-ence swim meet.
Roberts, who was selected to represent Guyana at stage one of the Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) in Suriname earlier this month, was injured after he was bitten by ants at a restroom stop during the 16-hour journey to Paramaribo.
He was unable to compete in any of the individual events there but made a miraculous comeback to help his team grab their only relay gold medal at the meet with a thrilling performance on the anchor leg.
During the first day of the GASA’s Independence meet yesterday which marked his first competition since the IGG, Roberts secured victories in the boys’ 15-17 50-yard butterfly, 200-yard individual medley and 200-yard freestyle heats.
“I feel close to 100 percent,” he said before adding, “The ant bites no longer have an effect on me, it’s just that the marks are still there but other than that it’s no problem.
“I felt really good back out there, the only thing was that I had a few muscle cramps from some hard work that I had been doing in the gym earlier this week to prepare for this competition,” he added while predicting victories in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly events today.
As expected the rest of the IGG swimmers excelled in their events.
Ashley Layne, Noelle Smith and Jamal Sobers all had wins in their multiple events.
Layne’s victories came in the 15-17 100-yard and 50-yard breaststroke events; Smith won the 50-yard butterfly and 200-yard freestyle events while De Nobrega claimed the 50-yard breaststroke event.
This year’s Carifta Games participant, Linden Wickham, was also dominant on the first day of competition winning every race by an average of five yards.
Wickham won the boys’ 13-14 50-yard breaststroke event in a blistering 31.92s and he also captured the 100-yard breaststroke and the 50-yard butterfly events.
Other winners yesterday included Accalia Khan, Sorroya Simmons, Errol Van Lange, Shane Baksh, Athena Foo and Stephen King.
The GSA Independence meet continues today at 11am.
