Sports

Jamaican Swimmer, Michael Gunning continues to Rewrite National Records

By Tony Morrison

UNITED KINGDOM – Jamaica’s Michael Gunning continued to show that he is one of the next wave of Jamaican stars looking to impress in senior international waters at the Commonwealth Games, CAC Games and World Short Course Championships in 2018 with another series of record breaking performances over the weekend.

Competing at the Stockport Metro November Open Meet this past weekend contested over short course metres (25 metre pool) Michael Gunning took down the  400 metre freestyle record and crushed his 200 metre butterfly set a little over week ago .

He has set those records in the midst of heavy training schedule which means when he is fully shaved, rested and tapered one can expect him to go much faster in both the 25 metre pool and 50 metre pool when called upon to represent the island in international competitions.

Jamaican Swimmer, Michael Gunning continues to Rewrite National Records
Michael Gunning

Gunning, who has represented Jamaica in at the 2017 World Championships and the 2017 World University Games placed 3rd in the 400 metre freestyle in a time of 3:53.08

Analysis of Michael Gunning swim
First 100 54.83
Second 100 58.40
Third 100 59.37
Fourth 100 1:00.48
Total time 3:53.08

That lowered the 3:54.26 by distance King Dominic Walter when he represented the McMaster University in a Silver medal winning performance at the 2016 Ontario University Athletics Championships.

Michael Gunning completed yet another national record double as he now owns both the short course and national records in the event.

Event SCM LCM
400 metre freestyle 3:53.08 3:57.70

Michael only participated in the Saturday session of the  three day meet as he revealed to draftingthecaribbean “I only swam as I’m so broken from training I did not want to run myself into the ground” which speaks to the intensity of his workouts at this time of the season.

Despite that he managed to crush his 200 metre butterfly national record of 2:05.12 with a Silver medal winning performance of 2:00.07. Michael was just edged for the Gold by Jacob Jackson of Ellesmere who recorded a time of 1:59.75.

Comparison of national record swims
First 100 58.00 59.28
Second 100 1:02.07 1:05.84
Total time 2:00.07 2:05.12

Draftingthecaribean spoke to Michael and got his thoughts about his performances, “I’m absolutely tired from racing every weekend but it’s great to see all my hard work is paying off and I’m managing to transfer all my skills from training and see the benefits coming together when I race. I was overjoyed to see how much I had broken those new Jamaican Records by as I didn’t expect to be swimming too fast right now in this block of work. It’s great to see that the Jamaican Swimming History is getting stronger and I’m so honoured that I get to be a part of it. It’s truly heart-warming to see how much encouragement and support I’ve received over the past year I can’t wait to see what’s to come leading into next year, as it’s a really exciting  time for both me and Jamaican swimming”.

The Stockport swimmer owns the national records in the 50 metre pool in the 200 metre butterfly and 200 metre freestyle at 1:59.83 and 1:50.00. He boasts a personal best of 55.10 in the 100 metre butterfly since donning the Jamaican national colours. Those times would give him the following placings at the last three Commonwealth Games.

Event 2014 2010 2006
200 metre freestyle 12th 13th 7th
400 metre freestyle 18th 15th 13th
100 metre butterfly 17th 12th 12th
200 metre butterfly 12th 11th 5th

Michael Gunning is a part of a Jamaica’s next generation of swimmers that includes and is not limited to names such as Nico Campbell, Justin Plaschka, Keanan Dols, Kelsie Campbell, Breanna Roman and Bryanna Renuart.

Queen of the pack remains Alia Atkinson and she will seek to lead the Jamaican delegation for the third time.

The country continues to improve in the quality and depth of swimming at the senior level.  In 2006 the island sent 3 swimmers to the Melbourne Games, in 2010 3 went to Delhi India and in 2014 6 went to Glasgow Scotland.

South Florida Caribbean News

The SFLCN.com Team provides news and information for the Caribbean-American community in South Florida and beyond.

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