13th Fina world short course championship held in Windsor, Canada Felicity Passon pulverises five records . Alexus Laird improves one |15 December 2016

Felicity Passon was arguably Seychelles’ best swimmer at the 13th Fina world short course championship held in Windsor, Canada by pulverising five national records, while Alexus Laird improved one of her own.

Of the five records she broke in the 25m WFCU Centre pool, three belonged to Passon herself. She improved her 50m freestyle record to 25.64 seconds (old record was 26.00 seconds since December 2014 in Doha), 50m butterfly record to 27.20 seconds (old record was 27.94 seconds since November 2015 in the United Kingdom), and 100m butterfly record to 59.99 seconds (old record was 1:03.38 seconds since December 2014 in Doha). This is also the first time that Passon dips below the 1-minute mark in the 100m butterfly.

Passon also bettered Shrone Austin’s 200m freestyle best of 2:06.84 which had stood since December 2005 in Reunion with a time of 2:02.89 before pulverising Alexus Laird’s 100m freestyle record of 56.78 seconds set in December 2014 in Doha by touching the wall in 55.38 seconds in Windsor.

She also earned the highest Fina (Fédération internationale de natation) points on the Seychelles team with 781 points in her 100m freestyle event.

Furthermore, she has ended the year 2016 as the second best female swimmer in the 100m and 200m freestyle and the 50m and 100m butterfly in short course events in the Fina ranking on the African continent.

Having already flown to the United Kingdom, Passon is to take part in her final competition of the year 2016 today at the ASA (English) National Championship from December 15-18, 2016.

As for Alexus Laird, her only record in Windsor came in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:17.71, thus improving her previous best of 2:18.20 set in December 2014 in Doha.

Winner of the 50m gold medal at the 12th African Swimming Championship in South Africa earlier this year, Laird also took part in the 50m backstroke (29.39 seconds), 100m backstroke (1:03.60), 50m freestyle (26.79 seconds) and 100m freestyle (57.84 seconds).

As for male swimmers Dean Hoffman and Samuele Rossi, they clocked personal best times in most of the events they took part in.

Hoffman swam the 50m freestyle (24.13 seconds), 100m freestyle (53.50 seconds), 200m freestyle (2:01.05) and 400m freestyle (4:18.11).

As for Rossi, he too the start of the 50m freestyle (24.37 seconds), 100m freestyle (54.63 seconds), 50m breaststroke (30.48 seconds), 100m breaststroke (1:06.44 seconds) and 200m breaststroke (2:29.00).

The four Seychellois swimmers, who were accompanied by French coach Guillaume Bachmann, also swam the mixed freestyle 4x50m relay (1:40.64) and mixed medley 4x50m relay (1:51.51).

The championships featured 920 athletes from 164 countries around the world.

Two world records were broken – one individual and one in the team race. South African swimming star Chad Le Clos, who parted ways with his long-time coach in September after the Rio Olympics in the summer, smashed the 100m butterfly world record with a time of 48.08 seconds.

Supersonic Le Clos was also voted the best male swimmer while the female title went to Katinka Hosszu from Hungary.

With 20 points, Le Clos was outstanding at the championship, with world titles in the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly, and a silver in the 200m freestyle.

As for Hungarian star Hosszu, she finished the competition with 42 points and an unprecedented seven gold medals – 100m and 200m backstroke, 100m and 200m butterfly, 100m, 200m and 400m individual medley (IM) – and two silver medals in the 200m freestyle and 50m backstroke.

The United States of America finished as the best team of the championship as they topped the medals standings with 30 – 8 gold, 15 silvers and 7 bronze – at the end of the championship. The 30 medals is the second-most the United States of America has earned at the event, behind the 41 medals won at the 2004 short-course worlds in Indianapolis.

The US team got the championship’s second world record in the women’s 4x50m medley in a time of 1:43.27.

Host country Canada won eight medals – 2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze.

G. G.