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Jamaican CAC gold medallist offers support to Guyanese Carifta gold medallist at CAC
Alia Atkinson (L) and Jessica Stephenson
Guyana’s young breaststroker and 3-time Carifta gold medallist enjoyed her first Senior Meet at the CAC Games ending the Meet with two Personal bests in the 100 and 200m breasts where she performed better than her seed times to achieve a 13th and 14th place out of 22 swimmers and a 16th in the 50m (following an unfortunate goggle malfunction).
The 15 year-old who trains in Trinidad and Tobago faced her toughest competition in a field which was predominantly in their 20’s.
Winning all the breast stroke events was the Jamaican breast stroke queen, Alia Atkinson, the current NCAA champion who also set 3 new CAC records in each event.
On the final day the generous Atkinson took time to speak to Stephenson and offered words of encouragement.
As a Jamaican, Alia said she was pleased to see fellow Caribbean nationals like Stephenson doing well in the sport. She told the young Guyanese that when she was 15 years-old her times were similar to those of Stephenson and she expects to see ‘Stephenson’ at the top in 4 years time and hoped for continued success in the event by Caribbean swimmers (who faced a lot of stiff competition particularly from the Mexican and Venezuelans). Atkinson urged Stephenson to compete as much as possible especially at Senior Meets to gain experience and exposure.
Atkinson gave Stephenson a list of words that she and all Guyanese athletes should work towards including, “When you feel like you’ve given it all. That’s when you give a little more.”
“Pain is temporary; but glory is everlasting.” and “Even if you feel like a sinking rock, remember to always find something to work on in practice.”
Living by her actions, Atkinson told Stephenson that “respect outside the pool is as important as respect in the pool.”
Stephenson thanked Atkinson for the support and commented, “Your comments has made me even more determined to return to training and ensure that I meet yours expectations and get ready to take the medals in 2014”.
Stephenson is also hoping that with the completion of the new Olympic 50m pool at Liliendaal that the next Games will see an increase in the number of Guyanese swimmers, who will also be inspired by Atkinson’s words and her own great experience in Puerto Rico.
Although Stephenson left Puerto Rico late Sunday evening, she was already back at Marlins pool in Trinidad on Monday as she and her coach began intense training for the Commonwealth Games to be held in India in October – for which Jessica has already made qualifying times; her 100m time in Mayaguez also saw her make the consideration times for the Pan American Games to be held next year in Mexico.
Stephenson will be increasing her strength training as well as swimming. The young and ambitious Stephenson thanked her sponsors, GT&T, Scotia Bank and the Guyana Olympic Association for their kind assistance in getting her to Puerto Rico and will begin to look for further support for India.
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