Jamaicans Janelle Atkinson and Angela Chuck stared at the US Open (25 M) being swum at the Nassau County Aquatic Center in New York. Yesterday, Atkinson put her name in the US Open record books when she won the 400 Metre Freestyle in 4:05.39, bettering Brooke Bennett’s five year old meet record of 4:05.67. American Lindsay Benko swam 4:08.85 to place second. Swimming for the University of Florida, Atkinson had the fastest preliminary heat time of 4:08.59.

Today, both of Jamaica’s 2000 Olympian Swimmers had great swims in the 200 Metre Freestyle as Atkinson placed second (1:59.45) just 4 seconds off Claudia Poll’s World record time of 1:54.17. After just squeezing into the C Final in 24^th place, Angela Chuck improved her preliminary heats time by over one second to place 19 overall, and 3^rd in the C Final, with a time of 2:02.54. Lindsay Benko turned the tables to out touch Atkinson and win the event in 1:59.28.

Atkinson and Chuck will both swim on Saturday, the final day of the competition. Atkinson is seeded first in the 800 M Freestyle with an entry time of 8:29.13. Chuck a sprinter, will swim the 100 M Freestyle.

November 30, 2001

ATKINSON BREAKS US OPEN 400 M FREESTYLE RECORD