Joshua Romany picked up eight gold medals in a record breaking swim, as T&T swimmers won five gold, 13 silver and five bronze medals to retain its title on the final night of competition at the Caribbean Islands Swimming Championship at the Pan American Water Sports Complex, Havana, Cuba on Friday night. The medals won carried T&T's record breaking haul to 120 medals (51 gold, 42 silver and 27 bronze) for 1,301 points, well ahead of its 88 medals won in Jamaica two years ago. Second was Cuba with 1,276 and a distant third, Bahamas with 576. Romany touched the wall first in the 13�14 boys' 100 metres freestyle in 55.03 seconds to beat countryman Dylan Carter (54.67). He ended as the top medal winner for T&T.
The time by Romany bettered the previous national record of 53.17 set by Nicholas Bovell, the brother of Olympic bronze medallist, George Bovell III, in 2001. Baptiste ended with six gold medals thanks to his 26.57 seconds clocking to earn gold in the 11�12 boys' 50 metres freestyle, and US-based Samantha Rahael was first home in the 15�17 girls' 200 metres breaststroke in two minutes, 46.09 seconds. Baptiste also swam to a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke (1:17.69 mins). The two other gold medals on the final night came from both the 15�17 boys' (3:38.53 mins) and girls' (4:08.39 mins) 400 metres freestyle relay teams. Two-time Olympian, Sharntelle Mc Lean got silver in the 18 & Over 100 metres freestyle (59.47) and Joshua Mc Leod (52.60) also picked up a silver in the boys' equivalent with Caryle Blondell third (52.93).
In the 15�17 100 metres freestyle, Cherelle Thompson (59.27) and Cadell Lyons (53.72) were second placed finishers as well. Christian Homer was second in the 15�17 boys' 200 metres backstroke (2:17.42); Tyla Martin got a silver in the 11�12 girls' 50 metres freestyle (28.75) as did Blaine Sobrian in the 13�14 boys' 200 metres individual medley in 2:23.06. The 11�12 girls (4:58.23) and boys' (4:44.79) 400 metres medley relay squads and the 18 & Over girls' (4:06.48) and boys' (3:38.06) 400 metres freestyle relay quartets also earned silver medals. The four other bronze medals for T&T came via Kristen Julien, Romany, Anthony Edwards and US-based Keegan Boisson-Yates.
U-16 water polo boys claim gold
The Under-16 water polo boys team claimed gold after they edged past host Cuba 11�9 to win their best-of-five match series, 3�1 at the Ciudad Deportivo. However, the Under-16 girls' had to settle for silver after losing to the Cubans in their fourth match. The Under-19 boys went under to Cuaracao 7�9 in their gold medal contest and also took home silver. Jamaica got the better of Cuba for bronze.
