Nigel Si­mon

USA-based, Dy­lan Carter and Ty­la Mar­tin were among six T&T swim­mers to top their re­spec­tive heats ahead of last night's fi­nals when the 28th edi­tion of the Caribbean Free Trade As­so­ci­a­tion (Carif­ta) Swim­ming Cham­pi­onships, splashed off at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um Pool, In­de­pen­dence Park, Kingston, Ja­maica, yes­ter­day.

Carter, who is at­tached to Davie Nadadore Swim club and a Flori­da-res­i­dent, and Mar­tin were the top qual­i­fiers in their 15-17 boys and girls 100 me­tres but­ter­fly heats and en­tered the gold medal swims last night as pre-race favourites.

The quar­tet of Kael Yorke (11-12 boys), Ja­da Chai (11-12 girls), Ami­ra Pil­grim (13-14 girls) and Adri­an Goin (13-14 boys) al­so qual­i­fied as the fastest swim­mers from their morn­ing 100m but­ter­fly heats.

T&T's Re­bec­ca Mar­shall was al­so the top qual­i­fi­er for the fi­nals of the 15-17 girls 50m back­stroke af­ter she touched the wall this morn­ing in a time of 31.66 ahead of Bri­enne Ren­furm of Suri­name (31.74) and Ma­rine Darx of Guade­loupe (31.90).

Join­ing the list of qual­i­fiers for the 100m but­ter­fly fi­nals were com­pa­tri­ots, World Ju­nior Swim­ming Cham­pi­onship qual­i­fi­er Joshua Ro­many (15-17 boys) and Re­bec­ca Mar­shall (15-17 girls).In the open­ing event of the morn­ing, the 800m girls freestyle, T&T's Syr­i­ah David is among the top eight qual­i­fiers while Sha­nia David (13-14) fin­ished in a time of 10:09.06 and coun­try­woman Theana Hay post­ed 10:17.69 in the 15-17 age-group.

In the 13-14 boys 1,500m freestyle, Chris­t­ian Mars­den clocked 18:25.18 while team­mate Kyle Carac­ci­o­lo fin­ished in 18:47.16. The top fin­ish­er in their heat was Samuel Marinette of Guade­loupe in 17:24.73 while the top qual­i­fi­er go­ing in to the fi­nal was Swann Phe­dol of Guade­loupe in a time of 16.26.65.Vris­nelit Fau­re was third in the 11-12 girls 200m breast­stroke in 3:01.12 be­hind Re­bec­ca Lash­ley of Bar­ba­dos (3:00.42) and Ka­vanagh Lam­bert of the Cay­man (2:53.55) and is well-placed for medal con­tention while in the boys' equiv­a­lent, T&T's Jeron Thomp­son is in the fi­nals af­ter fin­ish­ing sev­enth in 2:58.37.

Alexan­dria Don­ahue and Jonathan Ramkissoon were list­ed to swim in the fi­nals of the 15-17 girls 200m breast­stroke af­ter fin­ish­ing their pre­lim­i­nary heats in sixth and sev­enth po­si­tion re­spec­tive­ly while Jeron O'Brien is well-placed for medal con­tention af­ter he fin­ished in third po­si­tion in the same event.Chai al­so swam the 50m back­stroke and went in­to the fi­nals as the fifth fastest qual­i­fi­er while Ariel Cape qual­i­fied for the fi­nals of the 13-14 girls 50m back­stroke, and in the boys' equiv­a­lent, Justin Sam­lals­ingh and Revash Ram­ta­hal did like­wise.

In the 15-17 boys 50m back­stroke, Jabari Bap­tiste (27.86) and David Mc Leod (27.86) tied for third be­hind Ja­maica's Tim­o­thy Wyn­ter (26.91) and Dion­i­sio Carey of Ba­hamas (27.40) and look set for the medal podi­um.The T&T si­wm­mers made a promis­ing start in their ef­forts to re­gain the top re­gion­al swim­ming ti­tle it last won in 2010, al­so in Ja­maica.

Sharp start for wa­ter po­lo boys

On Fri­day, Kryz­tien Sharpe scored sev­en goals, inl­cu­sive of five penal­ties as T&T rout­ed Ba­hamas 15-4. The Ba­hamas play­ers were un­de­ni­ably the ag­gres­sors in the first quar­ter but af­ter this pe­ri­od it was all T&T as the boys in the red, white and black caps romped to a healthy al­beit at times nervy lead through the re­main­ing quar­ters.

Joseph Her­rera and Daniel West chipped in with two goals each for T&T while the trio of Liam Smith, Kegan Ford and Mas­si­m­il­iano Di Co­la added one each for the win­ners, who were ex­pect­ed to face host Ja­maica, yes­ter­day.