Alexandria Donahue registered a new meet record with the 15-17 boys 200m freestyle quartet as T&T's swimmers ended with four more gold, five silver, and four bronze on the final night of the 28th edition of the Caribbean Free Trade Association (Carifta) Swimming Championships
The competition ended at the National Stadium Pool, Independence Park, Kingston, Jamaica, on Tuesday night.
However, it was not enough for the local swimmers to deny Guadeloupe a third straight lien on the overall regional crown with 742 points from its 59 medals (14 gold, 27 silver and 18 bronze) to T&T's 698 points (21 gold, 14 silver, 12 bronze).
Donahue swam to her first individual gold medal when she raced home in 1:12.33 in the 15-17 girls 100m breaststroke, beating Jamaica's Zara Bailey (1:13.84), and Suriname's Evita Leter (1:14.29) into second and third spot, respectively, while improving on Bahamian, Mc Kayla Lightbourn's 2008 mark of 1:14.57.
The quartet of David Mc Leod, Jabari Baptiste, Dylan Carter and Joshua Romany ended the meet in scintillating fashion by setting a new record in the 15-17 200m freestyle relay in 1:35.96 to erase the old mark of 1:36.12 which the team of Baptiste, Carter, Romany and Emiro Goossen sat last year in Bahamas. Second was Suriname (1:37.38) and third, Jamaica (1:39.21)
USA-based Tyla Martin copped another gold when she won the 15-17 girls 200m backstroke in 2:26.63 with Guadeloupe's Megane Drane (2:29.77) and Barbadian Amara Gibbs (2:31.02) a distant, second and third, respectively, while the quartet of Osaze Riley, Aaron Acres, Derelle Prescott and Adrian Goin combined for a gold in the 13-14 boys 200m freestyle relay in 1:42.77 ahead of Aruba (1:43.50) and Guadeloupe (1:44.44).
Martin also got silver for T&T in 400m freestyle (4:32.15); Amira Pilgrim was second in the 13-14 girls 50m freestyle in 27.28 while in perhaps the race of the meet USA-based Adrian Goin also had to settle for the runner-up spot in the 13-14 boys 50m freestyle in 25.29 with two other swimmers in Bermuda's Jesse Washington and Gershwin Greene of Bahamas, all behind Netherlands Antilles' Adrian Hoek (25.02).
One event later, Carter was edged out at the wall when he touched in 23.46 to Suriname's Renzo Tjon A Joe (23.44) in the 15-17 boys 50m freestyle, with countryman Joshua Romany third in 24.27.
Not to be left out, Jeron Thompson also swam to a silver in the 11-12 100m breaststroke in 1:17.71 behind gold medallist Luis Sebastian Weekes of Barbados, who won in 1:16.67. Jamaican Sean-Douglas was third in 1:19.34 and T&T's Rhajeev Ramdeen, seventh in 1:25.10.
Bronze on the night for T&T came from Jonathan Ramkissoon in the 15-17 boys 100m breaststroke in 1:07.42; Ariel Cape in the 13-14 girls 200m backstroke in 2:33.16 and Jabari Baptiste in the 15-17 boys 200m backstroke in 2:16.04.
Tonight, the silver medal winning U-15 boys water polo team is expected to return at 11.10 pm on BW 474 while the swimmers will arrive on flight BW 424 at 11.40 pm.
Results
Other results:
Girls:
11-12 400m freestyle: Jada Chai � 8th; Mia Otero � 11th
13-14 400m freestyle: Shania David � 8th
11-12 50m freestyle: Marissa Dickson � 5th
15-17 50m freestyle: Rebecca Marshall � 5th; Alexandria Donahue � 8th
11-12 100m breaststroke: Vrisnelit Faure � 5th
11-12 200m freestyle relay: 8th
13-14 200m freestyle relay: Amira Pilgrim, Ariel Cape, Shania David, Jewel Mularin � 4th
15-17 200m freestyle relay: Alexandria Donahue, Tyla Martin, Syriah David, Rebecca Marshall � 4th
Boys:
11-12 400m freestyle: Kael Yorke � 4th, Kyle Sirju � 14th
13-14 400m freestyle: Joshua Romany � 5th; Emiro Goossen �12th
11-12 50m freestyle: Kael Yorke � 6th; Jeron Thompson � 8th
11-12 200m freestyle relay: Jeron Thompson, Kyle Sirju, Rhajeev Ramdeen, Kael Yorke � 4th
13-14 400m freestyle: Christian Marsden � 8th
THE MEDAL COUNT
Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
Aruba 21 16 12 49
T&T 21 14 12 47
Barbados 20 9 11 40
Guadeloupe 14 27 18 59
Jamaica 12 13 15 40
Bahamas 9 10 11 30
Suriname 7 10 12 29
Netherlands Antilles 4 2 4 10
Bermuda 4 2 2 8
Martinique 3 6 10 19
Cayman Islands 3 4 6 13
St Lucia 2 2 0 4
Grenada 0 4 0 4
French Guiana 0 1 1 2
US Virgin Islands 0 1 0 1
St Vincent & Grenadines 0 0 1 1
FINAL POINTS TABLE
1 Guadeloupe - 742 points
2 T&T - 698
3 Aruba - 659
4 Jamaica - 584
5 Bahamas - 507
6 Barbados - 485
7 Martinique - 353
8 Suriname - 350.5
9 Netherlands Antilles - 151
10 Cayman Islands - 107
11 Bermuda - 83
12 Grenada - 63
13 Cayman Islands AG - 60
14 US Virgin Islands - 55
15 French Guyana - 45
16 Bermuda - 44
17 St Lucia - 20.5
18 Antigua & Barbuda - 13
19 St Vincent & Grenadines - 7
20 Bahamas AG - 2
20 Antigua & Barbuda - 2
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