After a three-day weekend in and out of the pool, three of Guyana’s most talented young swimmers have proven that they are always up for a challenge.
Aleka Persaud
Eleven-year-old Aleka Persaud, 12-year-old Ethan Gonsalves, and 17-year-old Daniel Scott rose to the occasion during the three-day meet, each finishing as one of the best, if not the very best, in their respective age groups.
The ever-improving Persaud took home 6 gold medals, won in the 100M freestyle (1.03.13), 200M IM (2.36.50), 50M freestyle (27.95), 50M fly (30.63), 200M freestyle (2.20.33), and the 100M fly (1.09.17). She also copped silver in the 100M breaststroke (1.23.21 100) to finish at the pinnacle of the 11-12 age group with 71 points.
Ethan Gonsalves, in similar fashion, also finished atop his 11-12 age group with 62 points. He walked away with gold in the 100M freestyle (1.01.18) and 200M freestyle (2.12.92). Additionally, he copped silver in the 200M IM (2.32.46), 100M breaststroke (1.21.14), 100M fly (1.09.03), and produced bronze medal performances in the 100M backstroke (1.14.19) and 50M freestyle (28.23).
Swimming in the 15-17 category, Daniel Scott copped gold in the 100M freestyle (54.96), silver in the 50M fly (27.71), 200M freestyle (1.59.94) and bronze in the 200M IM (2.20.05) and 100M fly (1.01.15). His performance landed him in second place of his age group.
Their efforts were backed by a gold medal from Shareefah Lewis in the 50M backstroke (40.29) and a silver from Patrice Mahaica in the 50M backstroke (34.02).
Despite not being able to repeat their third place performance from last year, the Guyanese team managed to finish in fourth place out of eight teams, registering 553 points in the process.
Team Trinidad and Tobago took the top spot for 2018 with a marvellous track record. With their swimmers placing in almost every race, the twin island republic finished on 1,351 points to take home the overall gold. They were closely followed by hosts Barbados with 1,032 points, and Bahamas finished off the podium with 670 points.
A 36-member team departed Guyana last Thursday to attend the annual event in Barbados, from August 17-19. The Goodwill Meet is open to only a handful of Caribbean countries, and is seen as a developmental meet for young swimmers. Owing to that fact, when swimmers have competed at the CARIFTA level, they are no longer eligible for participation in the Goodwill Games. For this reason, star swimmer Leon Seaton Jnr was unable to compete this time around.
