Atkinson in breaststroke final

After a crushing disappointment earlier at the World Short Course Swimming championships in Abu Dhabi, five-time Olympian Alia Atkinson has safely made it to the 100 metres breaststroke final. Atkinson will compete in the last major final of her career tomorrow after posting the fourth fastest time in the heats.

Competing yesterday, the 33 year-old Jamaican negotiated her first-round swim in third place in 1.04.88 seconds and then improved to 1.04.26 as runner-up to the 23-year-old Swedish champion Sophia Hansson at the semi-final stage.

The other semi-final was won by China’s Tang Qianting in 1.03.99.

A win for Atkinson would close her long career with a fourth 100 metres breaststroke World short course title to match those she won in 2014, 2016, and 2018. In her 2014 triumph, she matched the world record held by Lithuania’s Ruta Melilutyte – 1.02.36. Such an achievement would make people forget her disqualification in the 50m breaststroke for what was adjudged to be an illegal kick action after the turn.

Hansson won a bronze in that final, which was won by Israeli Anastasia Gorbenko with Italy’s Bendetta Pilato, both of whom Atkinson has beaten during this season’s International Swimming League (ISL). Her fastest 100 breaststroke in 2021 is a relay split of 1.03.53, which compares well with her 2018 title-winning time - 1.03.51.

American Lilly King, the 2016 Olympic champion in this discipline, has the fastest 2021 time but isn’t competing in Abu Dhabi.

One observer who won’t be surprised at Atkinson’s steady improvement is national coach Gillian Millwood. “It’s in her modus operandi to get better and better the closer the competitions are. She uses it like training. She gets better each time,” Millwood said in pre-meet comments about how the 2012 and 2016 Olympic finalist has timed her peak for the ISL and the World Short Course event.

NO EASY WIN

Even so, winning won’t be easy. Hansson and Ireland’s Mona McSharry, the second fastest qualifier for the final in Abu Dhabi, were sixth and eighth, respectively in the Olympic Games in Tokyo earlier this summer.

All the finalists will have to take due care as 14 breaststroke swimmers were ejected in the first round of the 50-metre event. According to the US website SWIMSWAM, “an alarming number of breaststrokers were disqualified during the opening preliminary session of the 2021 FINA World Short Course Championships in Abu Dhabi”.

Atkinson is scheduled to retire when she emerges from the pool after the final.

Zaneta Alvaranga, the other Jamaican female competing at the championships, placed ninth in her 50-metre butterfly heat and did not advance to the semi-finals. She will go again in the 50 freestyle tomorrow, which is the last day of the event.