T&T's Christian Homer was once again in record breaking mood while claiming a second gold medal at the 28th Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica on Tuesday night.
Also among gold for T&T was Kristin Julien and Joshua Mc Leod while Cadell Lyons got silver and Samantha Rahael, her third bronze to carry the T&T swimmers to second on the medal table with 12 (six gold, one silver and five bronze) well behind runaway leader Venezuela which has so far won 40 medals (18 gold, eleven silver, and eleven bronze).
The 20-year-old Homer of the University of Florida won his second gold when he touched the wall first in the 18 & Over boys 100m backstroke in 57.47 seconds to lower the 2001 mark of 57.56.
Second home was Dominican Republic's Jean Luis Gomez in 59.91 while St Lucian, Jordan Augier took bronze in one minute, 00.39.
On Monday night, Homer also lowered the 200m individual medley record with a time of in two minutes, 07.80 seconds well ahead of Dominican Republic duo, Nicholas Schwab (2:10.42) and Gomez (2;11.65).
Last night, Homer, winner of gold medal in the men's 50m backstroke in a national record (26.36) at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympics to get T&T it's first gold medal at an Olympic event since Montreal (1976) went after another gold in the backstroke final.
A qualifier for the World Junior Swimming Championships, Julien, who was also double gold medal winner in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico two years ago when T&T placed third overall bagged her first gold of this year's meet in the 15-17 girls 100m backstroke in one minute, 08.19 seconds to beat Venezuelan Marcela Gramcko (1:09.42 mins) and Aruba's Ally Ponson (1:10.55 mins) into second and third respectively. Mc Leod, meanwhile was unbeatable in the 18 Over 100m butterfly in 56.01 second followed by countryman Cadell Lyons (56.14) and Honduran, Allan Gutierrez (56.50) to join his brother Abraham with a gold medal apiece.
On Monday's opening night of finals, Abraham won the 18 & Over boys 100m breaststroke in one minute, 04.17 seconds ahead of Panama's Edgar Casper (1:04.25) and home town swimmer Jose Montoya (1:08.66).
Rahael who got bronze in the 18 Over 200m IM (2:28.82) and 100m breaststroke (1:18.91) on Monday night, got her third bronze medal in the 200m freestyle with a time of two minutes, 13.41 seconds behind El Salvadorean Pamela Benitez (2:07.92) and Barbadian Lani Cabrera (2;09.94).
USA-based Alexandria Donahue who won gold in the 15-17 girls 100m breaststroke in 1:14.01 and bronze in the 200m IM (2: 29.74) just failed to add to her medal tally after she placed fourth in the 200m breaststroke (2:48.48) while David Mc Leod was also fourth in the 15-17 boys
100 backstroke in 1:00.71, just ahead of team-mate, Jabari Baptiste (1:00.76).
The 11-12 girls 400m freestyle relay quartet of Marissa Dickson, Rochelle Jackson, Deshor Edwards and Jada Chai also put in a solid slim for fourth in 4:22.78.
At the end of the first two days of swimming, Venezuela with its 40 medal haul led with a mammoth 440 points followed by host Costa Rica with 248 points, Aruba (179), Honduras (174), Barbados (166), Guatemala (162) and T&T, with 158.
Two years ago in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, T&T led by Joshua Mc Leod six gold medals, five from USA-based Dylan Carter, inclusive of three records, three from Joshua Romany and two apiece from Kimberlee John-Williams and Kristien Julien tallied a record gold medal haul of 22 in their 51 medal haul (19 silver and ten bronze).
Howell Napoleon and the 15-15 boys 400m freestyle relay as well as the 18 & Over boys 400m freestyle and medley quartets also got gold for T&T which ended with 622 points for third behind host Puerto Rico (1029.5 pts) and Mexico (997.5). The swimming segment of the championships will conclude tomorrow while water polo which began yesterday ends on Sunday, with the Open Water swims taking place from tomorrow until Sunday as well.
Other T&T CCCAN swim results:
Syriah David: 15-17 girls 100m butterfly - 7th - 1:09.34
Jeron Thompson: 11-12 boys 100m breaststroke - 5th - 1:17.95
Jabari Baptiste: 15-17 boys 200m freestyle - 6th - 2:01.12
Kael Yorke: 11-12 boys 400m freestyle - 8th - 4:49.51
CCCAN Points table after day one (26 events)
1. Venezuela - 440 pts
2. Costa Rica - 248
3. Aruba - 179
4. Honduras - 174
5. Barbados - 166
6. Guatemala - 162
7. T&T - 158
8. Panama - 112
9. Bahamas - 106
10. Bermuda - 75
11. Dominican Republic - 73
12. El Salvador - 72
13. Cuba - 40
14. Jamaica - 37
15. US Virgin Islands (USVI) - 28
16. Nicaragua - 26
17. Netherlands Antilles - 25
18. St Lucia - 20
CCCAN Medal table after day one (26 events)
Teams Gold Silver Bronze Total
1. Venezuela 18 11 11 40
2. T&T 6 1 5 12
3. Honduras 5 5 3 13
4. Aruba 4 5 4 13
5. Guatemala 4 2 3 9
6. Dom.Republic 3 2 3 8
7. El Salvador 3 2 2 7
8. Barbados 2 7 4 13
9. Costa Rica 2 6 7 15
10. Panama 2 5 1 8
11. Bahamas 2 5 0 7
12. Bermuda 2 2 2 6
13. Cuba 2 0 0 2
14. N. Antilles 1 1 0 2
15. Jamaica 0 0 5 5
16. Nicaragua 0 0 3 3
17. USVI 0 0 1 1
18. St Lucia 0 0 1 1