The trio of Jeron Thompson, Jada Chai and Kael Yorke won individual gold medals for T&T on the penultimate night of the 29th Carifta Swimming Championship held at the Piscina Olimpico Roly Bislik, Savaneta, Aruba on Thursday night.However, despite the three gold and a silver won by Osaze Riley, the T&T swimmers slipped from top spot on the medal table to second with a total of 26 (14 gold, seven silver and five bronze) to trail Bahamas which has won 39 medals (16 gold, 15 silver and eight bronze).Third is host Aruba which has won the most medals overall 40 (12 gold, 14 silver, and 14 bronze) followed by Suriname with 18 (ten gold, three and five bronze); Guadeloupe with 29 (eight gold, seven silver and 14 bronze)
Barbados with 24 (seven gold, 11 silver and six bronze), Jamaica's 26 comprising of four gold, nine silver and 13 bronze and Martinique with 19 (three gold, seven silver and nine bronze).The Bahamians also widened their leads on the points table by a further point from 72 to 73 over its nearest challenger heading into last night's final set of pool events.As it stood Bahamas led with 544 points followed by Aruba (471), three-time defending champions Guadeloupe (413), Martinique (354), T&T (341), Barbados (321), Jamaica (314) and Suriname (238).On Thursday, T&T had to wait until the 12th event of the night, the 13-14 boys 50m breaststroke for something to cheer about when Thompson raced home in 31.58 for gold ahead of Suriname's Juan Lumburg (31.91) and French Guyana's Carl-Gustave Delor (31.96).
Three events later, Chai outswam her rivals in the 11-12 girls 100m freestyle for victory in one minute, 01.75 to beat home-town entrant Elisabeth Timmer (1:02.50) and Bermudan, Ashley Irby (1:02.65) into second and third respectively while Jahmia Harley, T&T's other finalist in the event was seventh in 1:04.51.Yorke was not to be left out as he got gold in the 13-14 boys 200m butterfly in two minutes, 14.71 seconds well ahead of Barbadian Damon St Prix (2:18.04) and Martinique's Leegan Dupros (2:19.17) while T&T's Christian Marsden was seventh in 2:25.18.
Riley picked up silver in 54.71 in the 13-14 boys 100m freestyle behind Bermudan winner Jesse Washington (54.46) with Antigua & Barbuda's Noah Mascoll-Gomes, third in 54.74.
Jabari Baptiste also came with .03 hundredths of a second of a bronze for T&T when he touched the wall fourth in the 15-17 boys 100m freestyle in 53.14 to trail Suriname's Zuhayr Pigot (51.59), Barbadian Christian Selby (52.70), and Jamaica's Nico Campbell (53.11).
Pigot's time also bettered the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games B qualifying mark of 51.87 while the trio og Selby, Campbell and Baptiste all dipped under the Nanjing, China Youth Olympic Games B qualifying time of 53.26.There were few other T&T swimmers who contested finals but did not get among the medals, inclusive of Vrisnelit Faure (twice), Jonathan Farah, Luke Gillette, Kristin Julien, Josiah Duke, Syriah David and the 13-14 boys 800m freestyle relay team.Faure was fifth in the 11-12 girls 200m individual medley in 2:41.71 while Farah was also fifth in the 15-17 boys equivalent in 2:19.27. And in the 50m breaststroke Faure got home seventh in 38.22 while in the 11-12 boys, Gillette took fifth in 35.12.The Youth Olympic Games-bound Julien had to settle for sixth in the 15-17 girls 100m freestyle in 1:00.77 while in the 200m butterfly splashes, Duke (2:41.68) was eight among the 11-12 boys; and David (2:30.35) fifth in the 15-17 girls age-group.
There was no relay joy on the night for T&T as the 13-14 boys quartet of James Gillette, Osaze Riley, Christian Marsden and Kael Yorke could only combine for fifth spot in the 800m freestyle event in eight minutes, 39.77.With only last night's finals to be completed, T&T faced an uphill task to claim its first team title since 2010 in Jamaica.
Medal table through Day Three (82 events)
Teams Gold Silver Bronze Total
Bahamas 16 15 8 39
T&T 14 7 5 26
Aruba 12 14 14 40
Suriname 10 13 5 28
Guadeloupe 8 7 14 29
Barbados 7 11 6 24
Jamaica 4 9 13 26
Martinique 3 7 9 19
Bermuda 3 5 0 8
Bermuda 3 2 3 8
Curacao 3 1 1 5
French Guyana 2 0 3 5
Bermuda 1 4 0 5
Cayman Islands 1 2 1 4
British VI 1 0 2 3
Antigua & Barbuda 0 1 2 3
Grenada 0 1 0 1
Points table through Day Three (82 events)
Bahamas � 544
Aruba � 471
Guadeloupe � 413
Martinique - 354
T&T � 341
Barbados - 321
Jamaica � 314
Suriname � 238
Bermuda - 174
Cayman Islands � 158
Curacao - 134
French Guyana � 64
US Virgin Islands � 54
Antigua & Barbuda � 44
Grenada � 25
British Virgin Islands � 21
St Vincent & The Grenadines � 6
St Lucia - 5