Open Water swimming ace Christian Marsden became the first T&T swimmer to go under the 60 minute mark in a 5K swim event when he ended fifth at the Third Barbados Open Water Festival at Carlisle Bay, Barbados on Sunday.
In a high quality field that included World 25km and current US 5km champion, Alex Meyer and current World Junior 5km champion Taylor Abbott, who won the 2014 FINA World 5km in Hungary in September, Marsden splashed to fifth place in 58 minutes 21 seconds, a nearly eight-minute improvement off his Caribbean Islands Swimming Championship 5km gold medal winning time at the same venue.
Marsden, from Marlins Aquatics Club, won the 2013 Barbados Open Water Festival 5k in one hour 13 minutes.
Meyers finished the course after a breakaway midway throughout the race in a fast 55 minutes 51 seconds with Abbott second in 57 minutes 46 seconds.
There was then a nearly blanket finish from third to sixth Ian Bidwell of Badgers Club New York third (58:19), his teammate Jack Collins fourth (58:20) and Marsden, fifth (58:21) while Nicholas Hall of Barbados narrowly missed a top five finish (58:22).
Two hundred and thirty-seven swimmers from multiple countries faced the starter at 9 am in excellent conditions to compete in the 1.5km and 5km races in the Bay.
A crowd of spectators gathered to witness this historic event that saw two open water world champions and other accomplished open water swimmers competing in the magnificent Carlisle Bay.
Meyer, whose easy-going personality and quiet confidence had already earned him fans in the local swim community, erupted from the water and calmly walked up the beach to the finish arch amid boisterous applause and cheering from all in attendance.
Lindsay Vrooman, US National Swim Team member and member of Badger Swim Club in New York, had an outstanding swim to place third overall and first in the Ladies 5km event (58 minutes, 15 seconds).
Vrooman's club mate Anina Lund was second in the 5km race in 1:02:34 ahead of Barbados' top female open water swimmer Lexi Clark (1:02:46) who finished a highly creditable third.
Former professional triathlete, Eney Jones, was fourth and US Masters Swimmer Christina Cairns was fifth.
The 1.5km events were dominated by Barbadian national junior swimmers with Jack Kirby and Danielle Titus claiming top honours in 19:22 and 19:31 respectively.
In the Mens event Jack Kirby was closely followed by Jonathan Manning, Nkosi Dunwoody and Simon Wilkie of Barbados with Ed Tsuzuki a US Masters Swimmer claiming fifth position.
On the Ladies side, Rebecca Lashley and Ashley Weekes of Barbados were second and third respectively, Izabella Bors (UK) was fourth and Keilani Talma (Bdos) rounded out the top five.
Marsden,'s next assignment is the Men's 10km race at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Veracruz, Mexico later this month where he will be one of the youngest competitors at the age of 15.