From training in the blue lakes to competing in Tokyo: Aleka Persaud elated with Olympic achievements

By Jemima Holmes

Aleka Persaud has just returned from her record-breaking stint at the Tokyo Olympic Games, rewriting Guyana’s 50M women’s freestyle record.
At just 15 years old, Aleka Persaud is Guyana’s youngest ever Olympian. While she now basks in the glitz and glamour of her achievement, there are some interesting details as to how she got to the Games.
For one, the 15-year-old travelled to Linden’s blue lakes twice a week during the pandemic in order to access a body of water for training.
“All through that, I remembered that my dream was to make it to the Olympics,” she said.

“During the pandemic, my parents were forced to take me to the blue lakes at Coomacka Mines and Amelia’s Ward. My father Ivan Persaud and Coach Sean Baksh were constantly on the lookout for vacant pools,” the teen disclosed.
She added, “Once I got to train, thanks to Mr Phil Sarju and Ms Nadira Jaikarran, because of the lack of pool time, I had to increase my physical training time by doing kat-su at home and dry land training with my coach Sean Baksh,”
With those sacrifices now behind her, the young woman told a media gathering yesterday that she is elated about her 27.76s swim in Tokyo, that has booked her a spot in the Junior Pan American Games.
“I was really happy to do a personal best of 27.76s. Although I didn’t reach the semi-finals, I was pleased with my performance, because that time made me qualify for the Junior Pan American Games in November this year.”
Aleka went on to share about her hopes to clock better times during the lead-up to the Tokyo Games, and her focus on bettering the record later this year.
“I was very excited to compete in the 50-metre freestyle. I went to two swimming competitions earlier this year, in Puerto Rico and in Bahamas. I didn’t get the time, I was improving, but by a couple of hundredths of a second. And at the Olympics, I finally achieved my time that I wanted,” the swimmer related.
About her expectations for the Pan American Games, the teenager said, “I’m looking to try my best to improve my time in the events that I would be participating in.”
Also present at the engagement was Aleka’s longtime coach Sean Baksh. Baksh, while sharing his expectations for the Pan Am Games, revealed that he is working on a plan for the swimmer’s future.

On his hopes for Aleka’s Junior Pan American Games outing, Baksh shared, “My expectation is that Aleka will swim much faster at Junior Pan-Am. We’re planning to add two more events to what she will do at Junior Pan-Am. We will add 100 free and 100 fly, and we are going to try to break the records for those two events also.
“She’s very close to the 100 free at the moment, just a couple of hundreds off and about two seconds off in the 100 fly of her own record, that is; and we’re going to push hard for that,” he said.
“We have a plan in place. We’ve already proceeded documenting our plan for Aleka for the next 3 years. One of those things on the plan would be a high-level training camp outside of Guyana,” the coach revealed.
“We are currently preparing the budget for that. It’s very costly, but it is something that has to be done for the development not only for Aleka, but our athletes in general. If we don’t do these things, then we will not progress to the higher levels we see the Jamaicans, the Bahamians and everybody else doing. We have the talent, it’s there, we just need to put some effort behind it so that it can bear fruit down the road,” Baksh mused.
“But we do have a development plan for Aleka. We are working assiduously to ensure that that bears fruit.”
Aleka went into the pool in Tokyo on Friday last in Heat 2 of the 50M freestyle event. she finished second only to Papua new Guinea’s Judith Meauri. However, both their times were not sufficient to advance to the next round.
On the other hand, the teenager will focus on the Pan-Am Games scheduled for November 25 to December 5 this year.