Roman Targets Olympic Qualifying Mark... Sinclair Smashes Atkinson's Record

Anthony Minott, Gleaner Writer

Up-and-coming talent Breanna Roman has set making the Olympic qualifying mark in the 100m breaststroke as her major target this season, after an outstanding performance at the Karl Dalhouse Memorial swim meet at the National Stadium pool on Saturday.

The standout athlete in the 13-24 age group, Roman won four events and believes she is steadily edging closer to her target. The events were the 400m freestyle, the 100m freestyle, the 100m breaststroke, and the 200m IM.

"I am two seconds off the Olympic qualifying mark for the 100m breaststroke, I just need to work on improving my stroke, my speed and stamina," the 15-year-old said.

It is early in the season and Roman will have other meets to attempt to attain the qualifying mark.

Record broken

Another big performance this weekend came from 12-year-old Y Speedos swimmer Angara Sinclair, who smashed compatriot Janelle Atkinson's 17-year-old 100m freestyle record, winning in an impressive time of 1:05.34 seconds.

The young swimmer's winning time was four-tenths of a second better than Atkinson's, an Olympian who set the previous mark of 1:05.78 in 1995.

Sinclair, a student at the Immaculate Conception High School, won five consecutive races at the meet. Her wins included the 100m butterfly, 400m freestyle, 200m breaststroke, 100m freestyle and the 200m individual medley (IM).

Nine-year-old Y Speedos' Cameron Brown, who swam in the U-10 category, broke the 200m IM record with a time of 3:12.37, the old mark

was 3:12.87. Blue Seals' Chad Young also set a new mark of 3:11.06, erasing the old record of 3:12.81.

Another one for the future is Marlins' Britney Williams. Participating in the U-10 category, she swam to a record 2:42.08 and sliced seven seconds off the old mark to win the 200m freestyle, she also shaved half a second off the 200m IM mark.

Williams dominates males

The girls were not the only ones making a splash in the pool. One outstanding male at the event was Marlins Swim Club's Sidrell Williams, who won three events. Williams captured the 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 200m IM in the 13-24 age group.

According to meet director Dr Bryan James the event is used as qualifying meet for both the Olympic and CARIFTA games.

"It's a FINA meet, so it is used as an Olympic qualifying meet, but the thing is that not many persons would have reached the stage in their training to make the qualifying time for the Olympics, therefore the meet is used as a qualifying meet for the CARIFTA games and the Caribbean Islands Swim Champs."

"We had a very smooth meet and there were some outstanding performances."