T&T's Jabari Baptiste won two gold medals as did Alexandria Donahue on the final night of competition at the 19th Caribbean Islands Swimming Championship (CISC) at the Roly Bisslik Olympic Pool, Savaneta, Aruba on Wednesday.
However, the three first place finishes coupled with silver and five bronze medals were not enough to secure a third straight lien on the overall team title for the 40-member T&T contingent. Despite claiming the most medals at the five-day meet which ended on Wednesday night with 74 (26 gold, 26 silver, 22 bronze) T&T's tally of 877 points, was just shy of host Aruba's 890 points from 69 medals (26 gold, 22 silver, 21 bronze) after going into the final night with a six points cushion.
T&T won three gold, six silver and five bronze on Wednesday's final night while Aruba tallied four gold, silver and six bronze to dethrone the two-time defending champions. A distant third was Puerto Rico with 558.5 points and 43 medals (17 gold, 12 silver, 14 bronze.)
Baptiste's first gold medal on the night, came in the 13-14 boys 100m freestyle in 53.76 seconds while Suriname's Zuhayr Pigot (54.20 secs) and Puerto Rico's Andres Solivan (54.66) got silver and bronze respectively. His other gold on the night came when he whipped his rivals in the 100m backstroke in one minute, 01.71 seconds well ahead of Suriname's Daniel Kolf (1:03.54 mins) and Aruban, Raigel Hoen (1:05.62 mins). Donahue, meanwhile touched the wall first in the 15-17 girls 100m breaststroke in one minute, 14.21 seconds followed by Jamaica's Breanna Roman (1:14.68) and Suriname's Evita Leter (1:16.44). Among the silver medal winners for T&T, which may be ruing the disqualification of its girls medley relay quartet the night before as a key blow to its three-peat bid were Amira Pilgrim, Napoleon Howell, Jonathan Ramkissoon, Syriah David, Rebecca Marshall and the boys 11-12 relay squad. Pilgrim just missed out on the gold medal when she touched the wall in 28.93 in the 11-12 girls 50m freestyle to trail Jamaica's Angara Sinclair (28.83) while Aruba's Florence Kock took third in 28.97.
In the 18 & Over boys 100m breaststroke splash, Bermuda's Julian Fletcher (1:04.83 mins) turned the tables on T&T duo, Howell (1:04.98) and Abraham Mc Leod (1:05.37) with his record swim which erased the old mark of . Suriname's Diguat Pigot swam to a new record in the 15-17 boys 100m breaststroke in 1:05.83 while Ramkissoon was second in 1:06.81, and Aruba, Jordy Groters, third in 1:07.57. David (2:37.73 mins) followed Suriname's Candis Pique (2:37.21 mins) to the wall in the 13-14 girls 200m individual medley while Alexis Clarke of Barbados was third om 2:38.20. Marshall (2:30.27 mins) had to settle for silver behind Aruba's Daniella Van Den Berg (2:29.44) while Jamaica Breanna Roman was third in 2:31.11. The quartet of Christian Marsden, Dario Omiss, Kael Yorke and James Gillette combined for a time of 4:41.33 for second in the 11-12 boys 400m medley relay.
First was Puerto Rico in 4:39.40 and third, Aruba in 4:49.81. Also securing bronze were Omiss, Theana Hay, and the girls and boys 13-14 400m medley teams. Omiss secured his second medal on the night in the 11-12 boys 100m breaststroke in 1:18.60, while Grenada's Kerry Ollivierre won in 1:16.90 and Aruban, George Den Dunnen, was second in 1:17.67.
Hay was third 15-17 girls 800m freestyle in 10:24.70 to trail Van Den Berg (9:28.69 mins) and Megan Trinidad of Netherlands Antilles (10:03.02). The 13-14 girls 400m medley relay quartet of Ariel Cape, Jessica Gay, David ad Samantha Khan was third in 4:51.68 behind Puerto Rico (4:42.45) and Bahamas (4:48.87) while the Dyllon Joshua, David Wiltshire, Joshua Ramkissoon and Baptiste was also third in the boys equivalent in 4:17.04. Suriname won the gold in 4:11.29 and Puerto Rico got silver in 4:14.75. The T&T swimmers were expected to return home last night.
Medal table after five days
Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
T&T 26 26 22 74
Aruba 26 22 21 69
Suriname 17 12 14 43
Puerto Rico 13 12 17 42
Bermuda 13 11 10 34
Bahamas 13 10 5 28
Barbados 11 9 11 31
Jamaica 10 13 13 36
Dom Rep 8 9 7 24
Grenada 3 4 0 7
St Lucia 2 4 2 8
NAntilles 0 4 11 15
USVI 0 2 1 3
CISC Final Points Standings
1 Aruba - 890 pts
2 T&T - 877 pts
3 Puerto Rico - 558.5
4 Suriname - 471
5 Bahamas - 460
6 Barbados - 417
7 Jamaica - 356
8 Bermuda - 339
9 Dominican Republic - 253.5
10 Netherlands Antilles - 226
11 St Lucia - 103.5
12 US Virgin Islands - 75
13 Grenada - 66.5
14 Antigua & Barbuda -14
15 British Virgin Islands - 4