JAMAICA’S aquatics reputation continues to gain traction on the global stage as champion swimmer Alia Atkinson, and Breanna Roman created history when they contested the final of the women’s 100m breaststroke on the last stop of the FINA World Cup in Singapore yesterday.

The Jamaicans, particularly Atkinson, had a lot to celebrate, as she has always been advocating having more compatriots swim alongside her at major events and Roman’s presence offered some amount of joy.

Both Atkinson and Roman made history by just making the final on yesterday’s second day of competition at the OCBC Aquatic Centre, as it was the first time Jamaica has ever had two swimmers in the showpiece event at a World Cup.

It was in the last of the five heats in the morning session that the Jamaicans rubbed shoulders with “Commander” Atkinson in lane four with Roman acting as her proverbial “Lieutenant” in lane five confirming their places in the top eight for the Championship final.

Atkinson led the way with a split of 30.80 with Roman just on her tail at 31.80, but the latter made a push in the last 50m with a split of 35.75, to finish in a new personal best of 1:07.55 behind Atkinson’s flat 1:07.00.

After successfully navigating their way to the final as the fourth and fifth seed from the preliminaries, behind Russia’s Yuliya Efimova’s 1:05.75, the Jamaicans went in chase of more history a few hours later.

As expected, the larger the team at international competitions the better the individual efforts and the championship final was a perfect example of this.

With her usually brisk start, Atkinson took the early initiative and took the race away from the field with a scorching first 50m split of 29.87, the only sub 30-second swim of the final on her way to touching in at 1:02.74 minutes.

That time represented a world-leading mark for Atkinson and fourth-fastest performance of her career as she was just outside her world record of 1:02.36, which she clocked twice in her career.

The Russian duo of Efimova (1:03.58) and Vitalina Simonova (1:05.53) were second and third, respectively.

Roman, with splits of 31.78 and 35.86, stopped the clock in 1:07.74 to place a creditable sixth in her first Championship final.

“For the first time ever we had two…read it out loud, two Jamaican swimmers in the finals at a World Cup. Such a fantastic feeling to share this with my countrywoman @bree_romz,” Atkinson said in a social media post.

The last time this Jamaican duo was together, they joined teammates Trudi-Ann Patrick and Danielle Boothe to set a new Jamaican record in the 400-metre medley record at the 2015 Pan Am Games.

Earlier this year, Roman joined Atkinson as the only female swimmers to have swum under 59.60 in the 100-yard breaststroke, during her final collegiate swim for Auburn University at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division One Championships.

More history could be on the cards at today’s final day of action, as both ladies will contest the 50-metre breaststroke, with Roman also down to compete in the 100m freestyle.