T&T swimmers set six records when the 21st Goodwill Swim Meet hosted by the Amateur Swimming Association of T&T began at the Dr Joao Havelange, Centre of Excellence Pool, Macoya on Friday night.
Among the records for T&T were Jonathan Constantine, Leshern Morris, Riquelio Joseph, Ornella Walker and the 4x100 metre medley boys 9-10 and girls 11-12 relay quartets as T&T led at the end of the first day with 429 points, well clear of Suriname (374) while Barbados was third with 245.The trio of St Lucia (167), Guyana (129) and Bahamas (34) complete the six-team table ahead of yesterday's second day of competition and today's final day.
The tone for the evening's proceedings was set from as early as race number two by the Bahamas' eighth and under swimmer Marvin Johnson, who broke Damon St Prix's 2009 record 100m freestyle record of 1:08.72 minutes, when he touched the wall in a time of 1:08.10.He was followed by girls 11-12 100m freestyle swimmer Emily Sastrowitomo of Suriname, who swam to the wall in 1:03.95 breaking the old record of 1:04.39 by Ashante Neus.
Not to be outdone, the boys' equivalent of this event was won by T&T's Constantine who obliterated the old record held by Suriname's Giani Kemp (1:00.36) when he won in 58.80.
Barbados' Keisha Rouse, in the girls' 15-17 race outpaced her rivals when she claimed the new record in 1:01.05 erasing the time previously set by Kimberley Willoughby (1:01.22) and in the boys' equivalent T&T's Morris set the bar at 52.94 when he erased the record held by compatriot Abraham Mc Leod (53.37).
Records continued to fall in the 50m breaststroke as T&T's Joseph (38.25) shaved seconds off Nkosi Dunwoody's 2013 time of 38.25.In the 11-12 equivalent Justin Muler of Suriname set a new games record 34.43 effectively erasing T&T's Daniel Tardieu's 2007 time of 35.08.The 15-17 girls were not to be left out and Candis Pique of Suriname set a new time of 35.54 when she touched the wall ahead of Kimberley Willoughby's old time of 36.25 in the record swim.
Backstrokers were not to be outdone as Tristan Pragnell of Barbados set the bar at 1:08.27 in the 100m event erasing Sumeet Rambali's old time of 1:09.94 held since 2007.Local swimmer, Walker placed her name in the record books by swimming the girls 13-14 100m backstroke in a time of 1:10.75 replacing Soraya Van Dijk's 1:12.39.
In the boys' equivalent, Kenzo Simons of Suriname stopped the clock in 1:02.58 erasing a 14 year old record held by T&T's Jonathan Fabio (1:02.91).The relays were the grand finale of the night and they did not disappoint for excitement or record-making.
The 9-10 boys 400m medley team–Johann-Matthew Matamoro, Joseph, Josiah Changar and Marquise Nelson of T&T–set a new record of 5:13.62 erasing Suriname's time of 5:17.18 and the host swimmers were again on the books in the 11-12 Girls 400m equivalent when Terri Yates, Jasmine Marajh, Marie Ayoung and DeNicha Lewis set the bar at 5:02.32 erasing Suriname's old time of 5:05.61.
The girls 15-17 400m team from Suriname set a new games record of 4:54.21 shaving some seconds of the old record of 4:55.86 which they also held.
The opening ceremony on Friday night was spearheaded by Joseph Mc Leod, president of the ASATT who welcomed the participants from all the neighbouring countries while greetings from the Ministry of Sport was brought by Ronson Hackshaw, Physical Education Sports Officer at the Ministry of Sport, who was also the feature speaker.