Marlins swimmer Zara Persico breaks 29-year record

MARLINS swimmer Zara Persico shattered a 29-year national record in the 11-12 girls’ 800m freestyle event on night one of the National Open Long Course Championship at the Aquatic Centre in Couva on May 16.

Swimming in the mixed 11 and over opening race, Persico placed sixth overall in nine minutes, and 51:31 seconds (9:51.31) but was first to finish among the women.

Her stellar display shaved over a second off Cerian Gibbes’ 11-12 girls’ 800m record set back in December 1995.

Winning the mixed event was club mate Zachary Anthony (8:43.71) while Pt Fortin Aqua Darts’ Darren Belfon (9:22.67) and Marlins’ Alejandro Agard (9:31.76) rounded the top three respectively.

Newsday spoke to Zara’s mom, Malika, following her record-breaking swim on May 17, and she described her daughter’s performance as a “shocking” but “proud moment.”

“Zara has worked very hard in training and we’re thankful first to God, and especially her swim coaches Joseph McLeod and Maurice Faria and dry-land coach Joshua McLeod,” she said.

Malika confirmed that Zara only started swimming the 800m event in the past year and she had no real plan to chase the record.

“She was never aiming for the record, this is just the benefits of her hard work. I don’t think she knew the record until the day of the event. I think she took a glance and said ‘wow, this is hard mom.'”

Malika said Zara’s pet events are the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events. She credited her club coaches for allowing the swimmers to do all events at this age.

“The benefits of being coached at Marlins Swim Club is that the swimmers are encouraged to do everything, from short to long distances. The club encourages all swimmers to do all distances.

“At this stage, we’ve noticed the coaches would not encourage them to specialise (in one event), whether long or short. Just do your best.”

Zara is a Form one student at St Joseph’s Convent, Port of Spain.

In March this year, Zara returned from the Carifta Aqautics Championships in Bahamas with two gold and two bronze individual medals. She won gold in the 200m and 400m free and bronze in the 100m and 50m free.

She joined forces with other TT swimmers to splash to relay silver in the 400m free, and two bronze in the 400m medley relay and 200m free relay.

Malika was extremely with Zara’s performance so far, this season.

“We’re still recovering from that and this has been a special bonus on top of her Carifta results,” she said.

Later on, Anthony topped the 11 and over boys’ 100m freestyle prelims in 52.41 seconds. Vipers’ Stefano Mitchell (52.52) was second fastest with Tidal Waves’ Johann-Matthew Matamoro (54.00 flat) third.

Event record holder Dylan Carter seemed to take the night off as his time was 54th fastest overall. The unattached swimmer clocked a slow 1:04.56.

In the girls’ equivalent, Blue Lightning’s Amari Ash topped the prelims with a 1:00.73 clocking, followed by YMCA’s Ornella Walker (1:00.89) and Vipers’ Bianca Mitchell (1:01.99).

Marlins swept the 11 and over girls’ 200m individual medley with Zoe Anthony (2:35.20), Aimee Le Blanc (1:16.30) and Taylor Marchan (2:40.41) taking the top three spots.

RWB Aquatics’ Tyla Ho A Shu was fastest to advance in the11 and over girls’ 200m breaststroke with a 3:01.57 time, followed by Blue Lightning’s Sapphire Wong Chong-Achee (3:05.37) and Flying Fish’s Caylee Sylvester (3:07.30) respectively.

In the lone mixed 11 and over 400m freestyle relay, Marlins’ quartet of Marena Martinez, Khadeem Brathwaite, Le Blanc and Isaiah Alexander topped the field in 4:07.55.

Another Marlins team of Persico, Akash Singh and the Anthony siblings Zoe and Zachary (4:07.56) and RWB’s Tristan Davis, Toni Rae Yates, Anya Davis and Anpherne Bernard (4:11.88) were second and third fastest, in that order.