National swimmers Niall Roberts and Britany van Lange will compete in swimming at the illustrious 2012 Summer Olympics to be held in London, England from July 27 – August 12.
The Guyana side was informed on Monday last that the two swimmers were awarded Universality places to participate in one event each at the greatly anticipated Olympics.
Roberts will participate in the men’s 100m freestyle entering with a time of 54.99 seconds while van Lange will compete in the women’s 100m freestyle going in with a time of 1:01.39s.
Roberts and van Lange embody Guyana’s current top swimmers along with Trinidad-based Jessica Stephenson. Stephenson had also been shortlisted for the Olympics but with only one female swimmer allotted a place, she lost out in the competition between herself and van Lange.
According to national coach, Stephanie Fraser, who is currently training Roberts and van Lange, several factors played a role in van Lange being chosen over Stephenson.
One major factor was the athlete’s performances last year at the FINA (International Swimming Federation) World Championships in Shanghai, China last year July, where all three swimmers participated.
“It (selection) was based on their performances in Shanghai, and Britany’s performance in Shanghai put her in a higher FINA point standing than Jessica,” Fraser said.
Apart from the FINA Championships, Roberts and van Lange also represented Guyana at the Pan American Games in Mexico last September.
This will be van Lange’s first Olympics and Roberts’s second.
Twenty-year-old Roberts first represented Guyana at the quadrennial event when it was last held in 2008, in Beijing, China, where he swam in the men’s 50m freestyle and also served as Guyana’s flag bearer during the opening ceremony.
Roberts and van Lange are the second set of athletes to be confirmed to represent Guyana’s at this year’s Olympics. For athletics, Aliann Pompey and Winston George have both already qualified to participate in the women’s 400m and men’s 400m races, respectively.
