Jamaican becomes first black woman to win swimming world title
December 7, 2014
Jamaican swimmer Alia Atkinson became the first black woman to win a world title in the pool after clinching the 100m breaststroke event at the world short-course swimming championships in Qatar on Saturday.
The 25-year-old swam the race of her life to equal Ruta Meilutyte's world record of 1min 02.36sec - although under governing body FINA rules this still equates to a new record. It was also the fastest time for the distance ever recorded by a black woman.
"This is more than about me. A country...a nation, a race. First Jamaican swimmer, First female," Atkinson wrote of her achievement on Twitter later.
Lithuanian Meilutyte, 17, appeared well placed for a successful defense of her title only to find Atkinson on her shoulder at the final turn. The Jamaican clawed back the deficit in the closing strokes to out-touch her rival by 0.10sec.
Atkinson at first appeared oblivious to what she had done, staring up at the scoreboard with an air of resignation before it gradually dawned.
"Me?," she mouthed, pointing at herself before the enormity of her achievement was absorbed.
"I just thought 'oh okay' and looked up at the board and it didn't really click yet and then it really started to click. It took a while!" the Florida-based swimmer told the AFP agency.
The 4,500-seat Hamad Aquatic Centre in Doha witnessed 23 new world records set over the five days of competition in the short-course championships.
In the opening final of the concluding session on Sunday, the Netherlands 4x50m freestyle relay team set the tone by slicing 1.50secs from their own previous world mark set in the heats earlier on Sunday.
The Dutch now hold all global standards in the women's 4x50, 100 and 200m freestyle relays.
Later on Sunday, Markus Deibler set a new world record of 50.66secs in the 100m individual medley as he claimed Germany's first title at the championships in Doha.
Deibler lowered the previous mark held since December 2012 by USA's Ryan Lochte by just 0.05secs.
pwh/rd (AFP, Reuters)