Atkinson fails to advance

LONDON, England:

Jamaica's lone swimmer at the Olympic Games in London, Alia Atkinson, despite winning her 200m breaststroke heat, failed to post one of the top-16 times and as a result failed to advance to the semi-finals.

Atkinson, who continued her national record-breaking performance at these Games, posted a new mark - 2:28.77 to erase her own record of 2:29.00 - but her winning time was the 27th-fastest in the heats, bringing an end to her 200m breaststroke campaign.

The Jamaican earlier this week barely missed out on a medal in the 100m breaststroke, finishing fourth after earlier lowering the national record twice.

Swimming team manager here in London, Martin Lyn, who is also the president of the Amateur Swimming Association of Jamaica, said that Atkinson was extremely disappointed to have "let down" Jamaica, but felt she suffered from being placed in the slowest heat.

"The race went exactly how she wanted to execute it; she set a new national record, breaking her own record. The hitch was that she went in the heat with a time that was slower than a time she posted recently," said Lyn. "If they used the 2:29.00 that she already set at Pan Am, then she would have been in heat three or four, which would have made her better, in that she would have more competition in the pool.

"In this particular race, she led easily from start to finish and didn't have anybody to push her. If there was someone else in the pool close to her or ahead of her, I'm sure she would have found more gas in the tank and posted a faster time," said Lyn, who shared that the 23-year-old is disappointed, having not progressed, but highlighted her accomplishments.

"She is disappointed with the position she ended up in, she is disappointed that she didn't deliver for Jamaica in the 200m breaststroke, but the fact of the matter is that this is one of the learning curves and hurdles that she has to get around," Lyn said.

"We should focus on the fact that she broke another record and that in itself was a very good performance. The lady continues to break records and I understand that the concept of going to finals and medalling is very important, that is the next step, but the fact of the mater is that if she continues to lower the record times in the record books of Jamaica, they would stand for a while," Lyn explained.

Atkinson will now turn her focus to tomorrow's 10 a.m. (4 a.m. Jamaica time) heats of the 50m freestyle which, like the 200m breaststroke, is not exactly Atkinson's strongest race.

"In the 50m freestyle, she isn't really ranked among the world's best at this time. The breaststroke is her natural habitat. It's not like she does the freestyle all the time, so we'll see how that race turns out," Lyn added.

Atkinson will start preparing for the FINA World Short Course Championships, scheduled for Turkey later this year, after the Olympic Games.