– Champion swimmer Niall Roberts and his coach Seon Baksh are going for broke
for the upcoming Olympics
By Kiev Chesney
Champion swimmer Niall Roberts who has recently been accredited and confirmed as Guyana’s youngest participant at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, and his coach Seon Baksh are not taking his selection lightly.
After completing his General Certificate Examin-ation (GCE) Ordinary Level exams last week, Roberts plunged into a ‘no pain, no gain’ philosophy for his preparation for the Olympics.
Although he swims for the Dorado Swim Club, the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) had assigned Baksh who is the Goodwill 11-and-over coach, to prepare him for Beijing.
Now they see each other day and night, six days a week, as they get down to the business of accomplishing the Herculean task ahead of them.
Both coach and athlete have made their intentions clear; they are going for the Olympic qualifying standard in the 50m freestyle (22.35s for the A or 23.13s B).
According to Baksh, Roberts does pool training six mornings per week – one hour each morning (6-7am) from Monday to Friday and two hours on Saturday morning (7:30-9:30am).
On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, he goes to the Michael Parris Gym in the National Park where he does strength and speed training with fitness trainer Barrington Brown.
Baksh also mentioned that the two gym sessions will be expanded to four from next week.
Roberts also trains with Dorado Swim Club on Monday and Friday afternoons.
His coach said that since he will be competing in only the 50m freestyle, his training is concentrated on sprint-based power and agility work.
Baksh told Stabroek Sport yesterday that he believes that Roberts is definitely the right choice for the Olympics as he is at present GASA’s top swimmer.
“Earlando [Mc Rae] swam 25.41s in the 50m freestyle at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, but I have seen tremendous improvements with Niall and at Carifta this year he clocked 25.37s which makes him the fastest active swimmer in the country right now,” he said.
Painful
In an earlier edition of this newspaper Roberts had said that it was the best thing in the world for him, being chosen for the Olympics at just 17.
However, when Stabroek Sport asked him what were his thoughts on his training Roberts said, “It is painful!”
He also added, “Training is so intense that I even vomited during one of the sessions last week.”
When asked if he thinks that he may be pushing himself too hard he said, “I’m sure that this is nothing compared to the work that the swimmers overseas have to do and many of them may have been doing all that hard work since the last Olympics in preparation for this one.”
Roberts said that apart from him being eager to compete at this prestigious event, he also wishes to give his best possible performance and if possible, not only make the qualifying time but surpass it.
