Eleven-year-old Aleka Persaud shattered five records while carting off 11 medals for Guyana to finish the champion girl of the 11-12 age group while Ethan Gonsalves was crowned champion boy of the group during the Goodwill Swim Meet held at the Aquatic Center, Barbados over the weekend.
Persaud was easily Guyana’s best performer, having shaved time off the girls 100 metre 11-12 years freestyle event setting a new time of one minute, three seconds and 13 milliseconds (01.03.13) on day one.
The aquatic star returned over the following two days to reset the records in the 11-12 girls years categories of the 50m butterfly (30.63s), 50m freestyle (27.95s), 200m individual medley (IM) (02.36.50) and 100m butterfly (01.09.17) events.
Persaud also conquered the pool in the girls 200m freestyle, clocking a time of 02.20.33 for the top spot while Gonsalves copped the top spot of the boys division, stopping the clock at 02.12.92 with Paul Mahaica coming in third in the same race.
Gonsalves won the 100m freestyle in 01.01.83 while finishing second in the 100m 11-12 boys freestyle and the 11-12 200m IM.
Gonsalves also finished third in the 11-12 50m freestyle and 100m backstroke races while copping second in the 11-12 100m breaststroke. Similarly, Persaud settled for second in the girls 11-12 100m breaststroke.
Daniel Scott, who finished overall as the runner up in the boys 15-17 finished third in the 200m freestyle in a time of 01.59.94 as well as the 200m IM. Scott also excelled in the 50m butterfly, taking second place.
Patrice Mahaica was also outstanding, finishing second in the girls 11-12 50m backstroke where Trinidad and Tobago’s Kiara Goodridge broke the record with her swim of 32.52s.
In the girls eight years and under, Shareefah Lewis finished first with a time of 40.29s in the 50m backstroke. Lewis finished joint third overall in that category.
Meanwhile in the relay the team of Persaud, Mahaica Monique Watson and Athalcy Hunte in the 11-12 category finished third in the 4x50m freestyle, 4x100m medley and the 4x100m freestyle races.
The boys of that age group also dominated with the team of Gonsalves, Jaleel Anderson, Vladimir Woodroffe and Paul Mahaica winning the 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley while the 15-17 age group team of Fitzroy Thom, Scott, Antonio Rodrigues and Andrew Jordan finished second in the 4x100m freestyle and the 4x50m freestyle and third in the 4x100m medley.
Guyana finished fourth with 553 points behind Trinidad and Tobago (1351), Barbados (1032) and The Bahamas (670.50) in that order.
According to President of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association, Ivan Persaud, “I think this is one of the best performances Guyana made at the Goodwill Swim Meet and made a great impact.”
He added, “We are very pleased and would like to say thank you to all our sponsors and those who assisted in our preparation being here, most of all the coaches and all the swimmers who participated here.”
