oct.16.2008

This morning’s swim brought a new personal record time of 25:51 for Joshua McLeod in the 50m butterfly. His previous best in this event was 25:59. McLeod was all smiles after the event, even before realizing that his new record also qualified him as the 5th fastest swimmer into the finals. In McLeod’s heat #2, lane 5 swim, he placed second to Australian Barrett Thomas.

50m fly National Record holder Cadell Lyons also swam in lane 5 but during heat #3. His 25.52 result places him 6th going into the finals. The Lyons national record of 25.43 would have placed him 5th overall in the heats. Lyons also raced in the 100m backstroke. His time was 1:08:47, 7th in his heat.

The top 8 times from a field of 32 swimmers proceed to the 50m fly finals later on today. Four swimmers including McLeod are going into the 50m fly finals with new personal bests. The fastest time (24:69) this morning was by Scotsman Scott Daniel. The slowest finalist (25:73) was Conor Leanley of Northern Ireland . A time difference of just over 1 second. World record is 23:30 and Commonwealth Youth Games record is 24:66.

The trini swimmers are having complete rest prior to the start of the swimming finals scheduled for 5:00pm in Pune , India (approx 7:30am T&T time). Their race will be 5th to start.

The swim times of all 50m finalists are listed below:
 
Scott Daniel Scotland 24.69 New PB
Barrett Thomas Australia 24.78 New PB
Staples Lachlan Australia 24.93 New PB
Veer Dhaval Khade India 24.94 PB: 24:78
Joshua McLeod TNT 25.51 New PB
Cadell Lyons TNT 25.52 PB & NR: 25.43
Matulovich Kristopher Paul South Africa 25.53 PB: 25:15
Conor Leaney Northern Ireland 25.73 PB: 25:21