Guyana’s youngest Olympian, Aleka Persaud, will look to make a big splash in the pool in today’s heats when she dives into competition to start her Olympic debut campaign at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
The 15-year-old will be one of eight swimmers in heat four of 11 heats of the 50m freestyle races which starts at 06:30hrs. Persaud who has the fastest entry time (28.10s) in the heat, will be in the centre of the pool in lane four.
She will be aiming to swim her way to the semi-finals tomorrow. The swimmers with the top 16 fastest times will advance to the semis.
Elsewhere at the Olympic Stadium, sprinter, Jasmine Abrams will also spring into action. Abrams will compete in the women’s 100m preliminary round, while another representative of the Golden Arrowhead, Emanuel Archibald will get into the blocks tomorrow for the preliminary round of the blue-ribbon men’s 100m.
Guyana’s other remaining representative at the Games of the 32nd Olympiad, Aliyah Abrams (400m) will get into her blocks on Tuesday.
The other athletes who donned the national colours, boxer, Keevin Allicock, and table tennis player, Chelsea Edghill saw their respective podium dreams end with losses in their preliminary matches last Friday. So did the dreams of swimmer, Andrew Fowler on Tuesday.
Fowler failed to advance to the semi-final round following his first 100m freestyle event. He finished a disappointing fourth place with a time of 55.23s in Heat-1 after he was seeded first with the fastest entry time.
Hopes of Team Guyana earning a medal at this year’s Games, now rests on the shoulders of Persaud and the Track and Field trio.
