Jamaican swimming sensation Michael Gunning who resides in England, made his senior international debut for Jamaica on the best possible note by breaking the national 200 metre freestyle record. The national standard had already belonged to him with a time of 1:50.71 (split time 53.04) set on April 23 at the British Championships.
Places 43rd Overall
Competing on Monday July 24 he lowered that mark to 1:50.00 (split time 53.20) to place 43rd overall. That is the best placing for a Jamaican man at the World championships since Olympian Allan-Roy Marsh (1984) competed at the 1982 Guayaquil Ecuador World Championships. His performance places him third amongst swimmers from the CARIFTA region and fourth overall in the CCCAN region.
When draftingthecaribbean spoke to Gunning about his record breaking swim he said:
“I’m so happy to grab that National Record this morning. It’s great to be competing against the best in the world again and the whole experience so far has been fantastic. The swim this morning showed I’m learning and getting better all the time so it’s an exciting time. I have my main event up tomorrow in the 200M Butterfly so I’m super exited to see what that will bring!”
Father is Jamaican
Michael whose father, Shaun, is Jamaican and has family who live in Kingston said his parents are “over the moon about me representing Jamaica” and will be aiming for another top performance in his final event the 200 metre butterfly tomorrow. The National mark which also belongs to him stands at 1:59.83.
Scare at Manchester terrorism attack
Michael had an unforgettable experienced last May 22. He was among thousands who attended an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England when terrorists struck. Twenty-people were killed, but Gunning escaped unscathed.
Referring to that unfortunate experience Gunning said, “Going to that concert just made me feel so lucky to be alive. So, the opportunity to swim for Jamaica and just to still be here is unbelievable. I struggled for a few weeks after because I just wasn’t sleeping. One day I turned up to train and my coach sent me home, straight to bed. I have now got my head around it far better and seeing all those young children killed has given me more of a drive to succeed.”
