Home|Sports|Bahamian swimmers compete at worlds in JapanSports

Simba FrenchSend an emailJuly 25, 2023 91 1 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email

Zaylie-Elizabeth Thompson and Lamar Taylor hit the water first for The Bahamas at the Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall A as action got underway at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, over the weekend. 

Swimming in her second consecutive world championships, Thompson smashed her personal best in the 200 meters (m) individual medley (IM), placing fourth in the first of four heats. She powered through the cycle of strokes to clock a time of 2:25.36. Although she finished at the bottom of the rankings for her event she improved on her previous personal best of 2:28.48.

The 19-year-old swam the backstroke portion of the race in a personal best time of 29.92 seconds. Her 

previous personal best was 32.54 seconds. She then swam the breaststroke portion in 38.59 seconds and then clocked 42.27 seconds in the butterfly segment. She finished off the race with a split of 34.58 seconds on freestyle.

Thompson’s next individual race will be on Thursday in the 100m free.

Taylor was in action in the 50m fly heats, swimming out of lane six in heat number five. He won his heat swimming a new personal best time of 23.91 seconds and finished 40th out of 92 competitors. Taylor had a previous personal best of 24.21 seconds.

DaVante Carey was in action in the 100m backstroke. He swam out of lane zero in heat three. He went into the race with a personal best time of 57.27 seconds and ended up sixth in his heat and 47th overall out of 63 competitors in 57.50 seconds.

Rhanishka Gibbs is the other member of the team. She along with Thompson, Carey and Taylor will be in action in the 4x100m medley relay on Wednesday. Taylor will compete in the men’s 50m free on Friday.

All four swimmers will be in action in the 4x100m mixed freestyle relay on Saturday. In individual action on Saturday, Gibbs will swim in the women’s 50m free and Taylor will swim in the 50m back.