Grenadian Swimmers Delron Felix and Kerry Ollivierre both achieved Personal Best performances and national records in the just ended UANA Tokyo Olympic Qualifier Swim Championships staged in Florida.
On the opening day of the competition, Felix broke his own National records in the 50M
Backstroke with a time of 28.13 edging out his previous record of 28.15. Additionally, Felix
went on to set another National Record when he swam a time of 26.29 in the 50M Butterfly,
surpassing his previous record of 26.35.
The climax for Felix came on Sunday in the 100M Freestyle, when he set his third National record for this meet with a time of 52.9, establishing a new national record previously held by Esau Simpson in 2016.
National swimmer Kerry Ollivierre, who is based in the US, also established a new National
Record in the 50M Freestyle. Swimming in a Time Trial, Ollivierre swam a time of 24.00
which surpassed the previous time of 24.20. Ollivierre additionally swam personal best
times in the 50M Breaststroke, 31.05, and 50M Butterfly, 26.47.
With the lead-up Tokyo 2020 Olympics only 3 months away, Felix, the only swimmer to
have attained the Youth Olympic qualifying time, continues to hold the highest FINA points
ranking. Despite the ongoing challenge of an inadequate pool for training,
according to the Grenada Amateur Swimming Association, Felix’s perseverance has demonstrated his commitment to the sport, noting that over the past year Coaches
Ronald Charles and Nataly Sierra have supported Delron’s swim training programme, while
his strength and condition training has been led by Personal Trainer Suzanne LaTouche of
New Bodies Training Studio. Felix and Coach Nataly Sierra returned to Grenada on Monday, May 03. Ollivierre will continue his training at the Azura Training Camp where he is presently on
FINA Scholarship in the US.
