1st Fina World Youth Swimming Championships-Shrone Austin smashes 800m freestyle record |30 August 2006

Shrone Austin, her sister Shannon and Adrian Nanty were participating in the first edition of the Fédération internationale de natation (Fina) World Youth Swimming Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The three swimmers return home today along with Venezuelan coach Manuel Marin Mendoza and Paul Fanchette, who was invited by Fina to officiate at the championships.

Shrone Austin’s outstanding 800m freestyle performance of 9 minutes 03.16 seconds (9:03.16) eclipsed her previous best mark of 9:13.03 set during the Eighth All-Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria, a time which got her one of her three silver medals.

The former Sportslady of the Year, who finished 15th out of 35 participants in the 800m freestyle, clocked 5:08.42 in the 400m individual medley (16th out of 27 participants), 4:28.14 in the 400m freestyle  (25th out of 44 participants) and 2:10.01 in the 200m freestyle (37th out of 62 participants).

It was a smashing outing for Shannon Austin who pulverised two 12-13 years old age group records belonging to her big sister Shrone whom she hopes to emulate on the international scene.

In the 50m freestyle, Shannon stopped the clock at 29.43 seconds, 1.09 seconds faster than the old best of 30.52 seconds. She was placed 41st out of 48 swimmers. Her other record came in the 100m freestyle with a clocking of 1:03.29, slicing 3.49 seconds off Shrone’s old best for a final placing of 48th in 55 participants.

Even though she did not get the age group record in the 50m breaststroke, Shannon clocked her third personal best with a time of 38.80 seconds, thus finishing ahead of just one of the 37 participants.

As for Adrian Nanty, he registered personal best times in the 50m freestyle (25.62 seconds for 34th place out of 46 participants) and in the 100m freestyle (55.89 seconds for 35th place out of 50 participants).

G. G.