Breanna Roman getting the thumbs up from Alia Atkinson after racing in Singapore earlier this month.
Having had a taste of the FINA World Cup tour earlier this month, Jamaica’s Breanna Roman said she is now eager to compete on the tour next season.
She has also expressed her ambitions of competing at the World Championships in China next month and ultimately, at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Competing on the final leg of the 2018 tour in Singapore on November 16, Roman, a top US collegiate swimmer at Auburn University, swam in the final of the 100m breaststroke, finishing sixth in 1:07.64 behind compatriot Alia Atkinson who won in the fast 1:02.74.
The next day, November 17, she finished fifth in the 50m breaststroke in 31.41s, the race won by her more seasoned compatriot a quick 28.93s.
Roman, who is about to begin her post-graduate studies said initially she did not consider competing on the tour.
“After I went to Singapore, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do the entire World Cup series ever because it’s so long. You are just continually competing back-to-back-to-back, travelling all the time. It just seemed like it’s really exhausting,” she told SportsMax.TV.
“But after I competed I kind of felt like I wanted to do another one, but I finished and I was like “Oh God, I wished I had started this when there were like five more legs to go’ because I really felt like I wanted to do it all over again.
“So I told Alia and I told her mom that I am looking forward to doing it next year. So, I am currently training in my Virginia with my coach and I plan to do the World Cup series next year.”
However, before she takes on the world’s best short course swimmers in 2019, Roman is considering competing in the 2018 World Swimming Championships set for December 11-16 in Hangzhou, China but that might prove to be a bit of a challenge.
“We’ll see,” she said. “I didn’t exactly make the ‘A’ standard, so we’ll see. If I am in China I will definitely do my best.”
As for Tokyo in 2020, Roman said she has always dreamt about competing at the Olympics and intends to be a member of the Jamaican contingent there.
“I am definitely thinking about the Olympics. All the time. Even after 2016 I was thinking about it and I wasn’t as close as I am now,” she said. “I feel that’s something every swimmer thinks that’s the ultimate goal to go to the Olympics and represent your country.
“So every time in practice I always think about it. I think about how I am going to swim my race, what’s it’s going to be like when I am there, when I am going to qualify for it and how often it’s going to be. I am always thinking about the Olympics.”
Leighton Levy is a journalist with 28 years’ experience covering crime, entertainment, and sports. He joined the staff at SportsMax.TV as a content editor two years ago and is enjoying the experience of developing sports content and new ideas. At SportsMax.tv he is pursuing his true passion - sports.
Atkinson opens World Cup tour with 50m breaststroke gold
Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson took the gold medal in her pet event, the 50m breaststroke at the opening leg of the FINA World Cup in Tokyo, Japan on Tuesday.
‘Worst dive’ brings Knight-Wisdom silver surprise
Jamaican diver Yona Knight-Wisdom’s silver medal in the 1-metre springboard event at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru may not have been a complete surprise, but the dive he used to get him on the podium was.
Knight-Wisdom, posted a video of a backward triple from the three-metre diving board, saying it was crazy to think this was his worst dive in the not-too-distant past.
“Can we just take a minute to appreciate that his used to be my worst dive on 3M,” said Knight-Wisdom.
The dive gave Knight-Wisdom 81.6 points on the 1-metre board, with one judge scoring it as a nine.
Those points went a long way to helping Knight-Wisdom, Jamaica’s first Olympic diver, to 429.90 overall points and a silver medal.
“Someone tell me how that’s possible please,” said Knight-Wisdom, who takes on the 3-metre event today.
Knight-Wisdom received congratulations from the Jamaica Olympic Association and minister of sport, Olivia Grange.
Grange said: Yona himself said his silver medal was a fitting gift for Jamaica on Emancipation Day and on behalf of the nation I wish to thank him for his historic performance.”
Knight-Wisdom is the first diver to ever win a medal at the Pan Am games for Jamaica.
Another medal came Jamaica’s way at the Pan Am games through an unlikely source, as super heavyweight boxer, one of the few from the island, Ricardo Brown, mined bronze.
This wasn’t the first-ever for Jamaica, but it is the first in 16 years.
The Jamaica Olympic Association and Jamaican trainer Dewith Frazer, were credited with helping to achieve the feat, as the two came together to put on a one-month training camp for Brown in the United States that went a long way to making him more prepared.
"At that gym, Ricardo was able to work with boxers in his weight class and this helped him a great deal because in Jamaica there is a scarcity of boxers in that weight category,” said Leroy Brown, Jamaica Boxing Board General Secretary.
Jack vows to clear her name after testing positive for banned substance
Australian swimmer Shayna Jack has vowed to clear her name after testing positive for a banned substance prior to the World Championships.
Jack, a 4x100 metres freestyle relay gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games last year, returned an adverse result for muscle growth agent Ligandrol on June 26, prompting Swimming Australia to provisionally suspend her and fly her home from South Korea.
The B sample also proved positive, meaning the 20-year-old could potentially face a four-year ban from the sport.
Jack has maintained her innocence throughout and says the adverse finding "just doesn't make any sense".
Speaking after a four-hour meeting with officials from the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, she said it was a mystery how the substance got into her system.
"It's still an ongoing investigation so we can't clear that with anyone at the moment," she stated. "We're still looking into it but we're not going to leave any stone unturned.
"I'm really happy with how everything is going and I'm not going to stop until I prove my innocence.
"I will fight to get back into the pool because that's my dream and I'm never going to let that go."
In an Instagram post, Jack also discussed the impact the situation has had on her.
She wrote: "I feel a sense of emptiness. I think of what I have worked so hard for all being taken away from me, and I had done nothing wrong.
"Ever since I was 10 years old, I have wanted to be on the Australian swim team, to represent my country. I never swam for the medals; they were always an added bonus. I swam for the feeling you get when you stand behind the blocks in a gold cap. The feeling you get when you race in a relay with a group of amazing women and feel a sense of purpose and success.
"I pride myself on being the woman that young girls look up to and want to be like, not for the medals I win, but for the way I present myself day in, day out, around the pool and in everyday life.
"Now I feel like that can all be taken away because of some sort of contamination; no athlete is safe from the risks of contamination.
"Reminding myself of why I swim and why I want to be in the Australian team is what has kept me fighting. The day I found out was the day I began my fight to prove my innocence.
"Myself, along with my lawyer, management team, doctor and family have been working continuously to not only prove my innocence but to try to find out how this substance has come into contact with me, to ensure it doesn't happen to anyone else, as I wouldn't wish this experience on my worst enemy.
"Every day I wake up and have a rollercoaster of a day. Some days I am okay and others I am not.
"This will be an ongoing challenge, not only with trying to prove my innocence to ensure I can get back to training for the dream I have had since I was a little girl, but also the challenge of facing judgement from people who don't know me; people who will just assume the worst."
Jack also claimed two silver medals and two bronze in relay events at the 2017 World Championships.
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