It was a bittersweet morning session in the pool for Barbados as the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) got underway in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
While Jack Kirby has secured a spot in this evening’s semi-final of the Men’s 100m Backstroke, Luis Sebastian Weekes failed to qualify in the Breast Stroke event despite finishing 4th in his heat with a time of 1.06.27.
Weekes stopped the clock behind Matija Moze of Slovenia, Slovakian David Gajdos and Aleksey Sidorchuk of Uzbekistan who won the heat. He will be back in action tomorrow at 9 am local time to compete in the 200m individual medley.
However, his teammate Kirby will be looking to snatch a place in the final of the Back Stroke when he participates in one of two semi-final heats scheduled for 6:15 pm.
Kirby placed 15th overall but 6th in his heat with an impressive time, in which he was challenging the winner Kolesnikov Kliment in the first 40 meters of the contest.
Following the race, Kirby told NATION NEWS, that he is grateful to have a spot in the semi-finals although his tactics weren’t as effective as he hoped.
“ The race didn’t go as plan but I’m happy I made the semi-finals and hopefully I tonight and get up my times. I put in the effort but a lot of nerves were surrounding the first race, so I didn’t quite execute it how I wanted to.”
He added “ I will do some simple preparation for tonight, simply resting and eating and getting my legs ready for the race. I know my 50 metres should be really good I am very excited to see how that goes.” (AGB)