T&T's Tyla Ho-A-Shu of Northgate College established a new national Open Girls record in the 50 metres breaststroke when she placed second in her heat and 24th overall on the opening day of World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in Netanya, Israel, on Monday.
The six-day competition takes place in the Wingate Institut at Israel’s National Centre for Physical Education and Sport.
The 17-year-old Ho-A-Shu, coming off of a silver and bronze medal showing at the Central American and Caribbean Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) Championships in El Salvador last month, touched the wall in 33.11 seconds from lane five to trail host swimmer Hadar Karp, who won the heat from lane three in 32.91 as both swimmers missed out on a top 16 placing to qualify to the semifinals.
The other finishers in the heat were India’s Manavi Varma (33.84), Paraguay’s Astrid Caballero (33.98), Bolivia’s Naiara Roca (34.55), Costa Rica’s Sthefany Venegas (34.86), Honduras’ Sairy Escalante (35.03), and the Dominican Republic duo of Camila De La Rosa (35.61), and Maria Guzman (35.80).
Speaking after her swim, Ho-A-Shu who attained eight passes in her recent CSEC Examinations, inclusive of six Grade Is and two Grade IIs from her eight subjects and plans to further her studies at the Sixth Form Level in Mathematics, Physics, and Information Technology, said she was proud to achieve a new national record.
She said, "My 50m breaststroke race felt good, but it definitely opened up my eyes to a lot of work that I have to do to get into the finals.
"Personally, I think I did a good job because I came in with a time of 33.32, the old national Long Course record, and I broke it with a time of 33.11."
Ho-A-Shu will return to the pool on Wednesday for the women’s 100m breaststroke from 3.03 am (T&T time) in the second heat against Botswana’s Melodi Saleshando, Paraguay’s Cristhiane Anasco, Angola’s Fernandes, Sri Lanka’s Shehani Venturi, Guatemala’s Nicole Mack, Honduran Escalante, Kyrgyzstan’s Marina Krakhmaleva, St Lucia’s Fayth Jeffrey, and Finaritra Razakatiana of Madagascar.
T&T’s main medal hopeful in Israel, Nikoli Blackman, the triple gold medal winner at the recent Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) held in T&T last month, will begin his medal hunt in the men's 200m freestyle Tuesday from 4.12 am (TT time) with the top ten swimmers advancing straight to the gold medal splash.
The 18-year-old Blackman, now a student-athlete at the University of Tennessee clocked a new personal best time of one minute, 49.94 seconds in winning gold at the CYG and is hopeful of improving on that time.
Looking ahead to the start of his campaign, a relaxed Blackman said, "Since winning triple gold at the CYG, I have been at university for a week with my new teammates training and I have learned new stuff in terms of how to start off the blocks and also how to make my 50s more efficient and now it's for me to put it into practice."
In the 200m freestyle, Blackman will swim from lane two against Israel’s Daniel Rabinovich, Brazilian Leonardo Alcantara, Italians Filippo Bertoni, and Alessandro Ragaini, USA’s Jason Zhao, Poland’s Adam Zdybel, Korea’s Junwoo Kim, Turkey’s Ahmet Burak Isik, and Slovakia’s Kristian Obert.
A former St Anthony’s College, and Fatima College pupil, Blackman will be making his second and final appearance at the World Junior Championship after making his debut last year in Lima, Peru, where he placed seventh in the men’s 50m freestyle final in 22.83 and 12th overall in the 100m freestyle in 50.63.
On Wednesday, Blackman returns to the pool for the 50m freestyle and will line up in heat eight of ten from lane four against Israel’s Nir Hay, South Africa’s Taylor Luck, Czech Republic’s Ondrej Slavik, USA’s Ethan Harrington, Brazil’s Pedro Sansone, Israel’s Mikhail Povaliaev, Canada’s Chris Weeks, Poland’s Julian Swiderski, and Colombian Santiago Arteaga.
On Friday, Blackman in his final event, the men’s 100m freestyle, will race in heat ten of 11 from lane six against Austria’s Lukas Edl, Croatian Vlaho Nenadic, Korea’s Minkyu Noh, Italian Lorenzo Ballarti, USA’s Maximus Williamson, Australian Edward Sommerville, China’s Xizhe Wang, Czech Republic’s Jakub Krischke and Poland’s Zdybel.
Last month at the CYG, Blackman won the 50m freestyle in 22.36, a new personal record and the 100m freestyle title in 49.60 at the CYG, also a new personal best, and first sub-50 seconds' swim.