LONDON – By the time most Barbadians are fully awake and about their day, three-time Olympian Bradley Ally would have completed his first swim at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Ally, 25, will splash off in the men’s 400 metres individual medley (IM), the very first event on the swimming calendar, at 10 a.m. British time (5 a.m. in Barbados). He is drawn in the first of five heats and will be in Lane 5.
His qualifying time of 4 minutes, 24.06 seconds is about ten seconds slower than his personal best time, but he will need to come up with a big personal best performance to reach the final which will be held at 7:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m.) as only the top eight advance.
There are no semi-finals for the eight-lap event which features two 50-metre legs each of the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and the freestyle.
World and Olympic record holder Michael Phelps, who is chasing history as the greatest Olympian ever – he already holds that honour in the pool – is in Heat 4 with the second fastest time of 4:07.89, while his American compatriot and challenger Ryan Lochte, who has the fastest time of 4:07.06, is in the final heat.
Tomorrow, Ally will compete in the 100 metres backstroke where he has a qualifying time of 55.88 seconds and on Wednesday in his pet event, the 200 metres IM. Semi-finals and finals are in the evening session.
Several other Caribbean athletes will be in action. Trinidad’s 2004 200 metres IM bronze medallist George Bovell will also compete in the 100 metres backstroke and he is in Heat 2 with a time of 55.65 seconds.
Danielle Beaubrun of St Lucia will compete in the women’s breaststroke in Heat 2 and Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson will follow her in the same event.
However, the majority of regional athletes will be looking for a share of the spotlight on Tuesday when the heats of the 100 metres freestyle get under way.
Guyana’s Niall Roberts; Esau Simpson of Grenada; Bovell and Shaune and Brett Fraser of the Cayman Islands will all feature.
Later in the programme, Britany Van Lange of Guyana, Bahamian Ariana Vanderpool-Wallace and Karin O’Reilly Clashing of Antigua and Barbuda will also look to make their mark.
