DESPITE failing to make the men’s 50-metre freestyle final at the eighth FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, Jamaica’s Nathaniel Thomas is intent on continuing his progress for the remainder of the event and beyond.

Though others have produced some credible performances since day one of the championship, Thomas is the lone swimmer of the seven-member team to make a semi-final — and this he believes is testament to the experience gained at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham recently.

Nelson Denny, Carolyn Levy-Powell, Kaheem Lozer, Devaughn Robe, Leanna Wainwright and Morgan Cogle are the other members of the team.

To achieve the semi-final feat on Thursday’s third day of the six-day championships, Thomas swam a big personal best 23.50 seconds at Videba Aquatic Centre in Lima, Peru.

He bettered his previous best of 23.80s for fifth in the final heat, which was also the fastest heat of the 50m freestyle.

And while he was unable to improve on the performance to make the medal event, Thomas took heart from his display. He placed 15th overall in the semis.

“Going into the race I was very relaxed, I was very ready, and the strategy was pretty much the same as [for the] Commonwealth Games. The only thing that really made a difference was the fact that there wasn’t any nerves,” Thomas said shortly after the event.

“I was a lot more relaxed, a lot more calm, and that has been the case for [the] majority of the meet so far. I think coming off the Commonwealth Games, which is a high-level meet, and taking that experience into this meet has been very beneficial in terms of how I approach my races and how I execute my race plans,” he opined.

That said, the 18-year-old still believes he has much to work on to take his performances to another level.

“One thing I will be working on is my finish into the wall; I think that was where I have been lacking. But besides that, my first 25m has been very strong, and since we have been here I have been hitting some good times off the blocks for the first 25m in practice. So, I think that is where my strength is and so now the aim is just to focus on my weakness and try and get it up to the level that it should be,” Thomas reasoned.

Meanwhile, Friday’s fourth day yielded mixed results for the young sensations though none was able to progress beyond the heats.

Levy-Powell clocked a fast 31.49s to win her heat of the 50m backstroke to finish 25th overall in a field of 52 swimmers.

Wainwright, swimming in heat six, stopped the clock in 31.44s for 24th overall. This made her the highest-ranked Jamaican female at the event, surpassing Zaneta Alvaranga’s 25th-place ranking at the 2019 event in Budapest.

Lozer and Robe then clocked 25.29s and 25.84s for second and third in their respective heats of the 50m butterfly. Those performances placed them 23rd and 31st overall in a field of 77 swimmers. Lozer’s time was also a new personal best.

Wainwright then brought the curtains down on Jamaica’s day by placing third in the 200m individual medley (IM) in 3:41.81. The time ranked her 26 out of 30 contestants.

— Sherdon Cowan