On August 6, 2017 Jamaica celebrated 55 years of Independence. A highly favored daughter of the soil, Alia Atkinson delivered a fitting gift to the people of Jamaica by winning the 200 short-course-meters (scm) breaststroke in Berlin on the second stop of the FINA/airweave Swimming World Cup 2017.
Needed to fine tune races
Mere days after posting the second fastest time, 2:20.63, in her career in the event with a Bronze medal winning performance in Moscow, Alia came to Berlin, Germany. On arrival, she said needed to fine tune aspects of her races. She did that in a big way. She qualified easily with a time of 2:22.35. The European record holder in the 200 scm Rikke Møller Pedersen again topped the qualifiers with a swim of 2:21.87.
In the final it would be again Atkinson. She is the fastest Jamaican, man or woman in all formats of the 200 breaststroke whether it is short course yards (scy) , short course meters, long course meters (lcm). In the Berlin race, she went out the fastest in 31.65. That was the same opening 50 meter split in Moscow
Strong challenge from Pedersen
Pedersen went with her in 31.96, just .01 outside of her Russian opening salvo. That is where the similarities to Moscow ended as Pedersen did not overtake the Jamaican at the 100 meters mark. Alia had a slight advantage of 1:07.38 to 1:07.49 at the century point. The Danish swimmer would make an even greater press to gain the lead at the 150 mark but Atkinson would not yield but the lead was just .02 , 1:43.27 to 1:43.29.
Seemingly summoning the strength of Jamaica’s lone heroine Nanny of the Maroons Alia put on a final 50 meters blast of 35.69 to take the Gold in a time of 2:18.96. Silver went to Pedersen in 2:19.52 and the Bronze in 2:19.96 to Fanny Lecluyse of Belgium. Alia’s performance and her improved back-end speed should put her national record in jeopardy.
Alia’s Jamaican 200 breaststroke records
| 200 scy breaststroke | 2:05.63 |
| 200 scm breaststroke | 2:17.84 |
| 200 lcm breaststroke | 2:25.48 |
