Alia roars in ISL Relays

IN CONSECUTIVE weekends at the International Swimming League (ISL) play-offs, Jamaica’s five-time Olympian, Alia Atkinson, is showing signs of returning to peak form.

Atkinson helped to keep her London Roar team in the hunt for a place in the ISL finals with four solid swims. She was especially good this past weekend in a relay that unveiled her potential for speed.

Competing in Eindhoven, Holland last weekend, Atkinson repeated her 50-metre breaststroke time and placing from the play-off round of the previous week – 29.54 seconds – and found herself behind American Lilly King, the 2016 Olympic champion in the 100m breaststroke.

They met again in the second leg of the 4x100 medley relay, which saw the Jamaican edging away from King by 0.06 seconds with a nippy split time of one minute, 03.53 seconds. The Roar won the event in 3:46.28, with Australia’s Emma McKeon, Olympic champion in both the 50- and 100-metre freestyle, zooming home with a 50.67-second anchor leg.

POINTS STANDING

Atkinson, McKeon and their London Roar teammates amassed 520.5 points to outdistance King’s Cali Condors on 474.5.

In addition, her relay time was a big improvement over her split from the previous week – one minute, 04.21 seconds. The Roar won the 4x100m medley on both occasions.

Now 32, Atkinson has three World titles in the 100-metre breaststroke, with the 2018 victory accomplished in one minute, 03.51 seconds.

Her determined swim to hold off King in Eindhoven indicates that her plans to peak for the ESL play-offs are on target.

In fact, she bypassed the FINA World Cup in October to focus on training for the play-offs.

“I decided not to go to (the) World Cup, which I normally go to every year,” she explained last month. “And so this year I can just focus on, I think, three or four more weeks on getting as much as I can in and see if I can change anything and sharpen up for the next couple weeks.”

In the 100-metre breaststroke, her best is the world record of one minute, 02.36 seconds, which was done in a gold medal swim at the 2014 Short Course World Championships.

That victory made her the first black woman to win a world swimming title.

During the November 13-14 play-off round, Atkinson lost to Imogen Clark of the LA Current team, 29.54 seconds to 29.32. The 22-year-old Clark established a new British record to win. The Roar lost that team battle to the LA Current, 494.5 points to 506.

The Roar will be back in the pool on November 25 for the next round of play-offs.

During the break between the ISL regular season and play-offs, in November 2021, Atkinson received an honorary degree, doctor of laws, from The University of the West Indies.