A whopping nine records were broken and one equalled by swimmers who participated in the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) 2010 Independence Meet which was held at the Castellani Pool from last Friday to Sunday.
Most of the records were broken by Goodwill Games gold medalist Brittany van Lange who topped four of her current records.
Niall Roberts followed with three records while Athena Gaskin, Soroya Simmons and Noelle Smith broke one record each.
Roberts and van Lange, who were the best swimmers in the male and female categories respectively, copped the top prizes, and each received a 12-karat gold “medal” (pendant) donated by Topaz – “the only jewellers.”
Van Lange, who competes in the girls’ 13 – 14-year
old category, shaved off almost six seconds from her 800m freestyle record on Friday when she bettered her national time of 10:32.69 with 10:27.07.
Another two record breaking performances were displayed by van Lange in her Saturday competitions. In her 50m butterfly van Lange, competing against five participants, earned two victories when she secured first place in addition to scraping mere decimals from her record transforming it from 34.26 seconds to 33.86 seconds. Her third record followed in her 400m freestyle when she finished in 5:04.32 seconds, reducing the national time by 5.05 seconds.
Van Lange pulled in her last record breaker on Sunday in her 200m freestyle topping the national record of 2:21.32. To a vibrantly cheering crowd van Lange swam her race in 2:20.32.
Roberts, swimming in the 18 years and over category, unveiled his first two record breakers on Saturday, topping the national record of 26.72 for the 50m butterfly when he finished the race in 26.70 seconds. In his 100m freestyle, he just about scraped a record breaker in the 100m freestyle to change the national record from 54.47 seconds to 54.02 seconds.
On Sunday, in the 200m freestyle he beat the national record of 2:04.85 set by Jamaal Sobers to race in 2:03.54.
Meanwhile, Gaskin who had been finishing in second spot behind van Lange in most of her races was able to earn herself a double victory when she finished her 200m freestyle ahead of van Lange while simultaneously breaking the national record. Gaskin amended the national record from 2:49.18 to 2:46.14s.
Simmons produced her record in her opening event, the 100m backstroke, changing the time from 1:20.02 to 1:19.66, while Smith equalled the current female 15 – 17 category 50m butterfly record of 32.6 seconds.
