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Junior PanAm Games – swimming
Despite no medals Coach Mahaica says trip was successful
By Sean Devers
Kiaeteur News – Yesterday in Cali, Colombia 15-year-old Aleka Persaud swam 28.05 in the 50m free in the Junior Pan American Games in her final race in which attracted the best young swimmers from 37 Countries.
Guyana Swim team in Colombia, Coach Paul Mahaica is 2nd from right.
A day after setting the National Women’s 100m free record of 10:1.11 to better the record set by Brittany Van Lang as a 14-year-old in 2010, Aleka, the current Guyana record holder in the 50m free which she set at the Olympics, yesterday fell 0.29 of a second short of her Tokyo time.
The other female swimmer in the team, Patrice Mahaica completed her race in a time of 29.96 to shave off 0.11 of a second off of her entry time as she too showed improvement in Colombia despite battling the high altitude there.
In the men’s 50m free, Guyana’s top Junior swimmer 17-year-old Leon Seaton Jnr., finished the race in a time of 25.07 after starting the event with an entry time of 24.91.
Paul Mahaica made the biggest improvement as he completed the 50 meters in a time of 26.60 as he swam 3.17 of a second faster than he entry time which was 29.77, as he like his sister registered Personal Best performances yesterday.
Despite his charges returning home without any medals Coach Paul Mahaica said the trip has been very successful.
“I am seeing our athletes putting in a 100 percent, even with the limited training and exposure, these are young athletes… fifteen year-olds…and the eldest is seventeen…who are swimming against eighteen year olds and twenty-three-year-old swimmers, who would have participated in multiple competitions,” stated Coach Mahaica.
According to the Coach if he were to do this again in a country with such high altitude, it would be better for the athletes to be in that Country for a longer period.
“Despite the challenges the athletes faced… age differences, the pandemic and the high altitude, we would have seen that they have improved.
I am very pleased and happy because their performance shows that they are very talented and they need to be considered fairly,” Mahaica continued.
“What I would like to see over the next couple of years is to see these same athletes competing in the sport way into their twenties.
With age comes experience, they would be more rounded athletes like the competitors that they had to compete against over the past weeks,” the Coach posited.
We have been losing good athletes in their early twenties and in their late teens such as Britney Van Lange, Jamila Sanmoogan, Omar Alves, Onika George, Nile Roberts and Hannibal Gaskin.
Had they continued in the Sport we might have had athletes qualifying for the Olympics and other major games,” added the Coach.
He said that he would like to see the private sector get involved as much as possible.
“I am heartened and thankful to our Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Mr. Charles Ramson for the initiative of the Sports Academy. I feel it is a step in the right direction for all of Guyana Athletes.
Aleka Persaud and Patrice Mahaica will return home for a few before they join Andrew Fowler and Raekwon Noel to travel to Abu Dhabi for World 25m Short Course Championships scheduled from December 16-21.
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