Ex­act­ly one week ago, Kim­ber­lee John-Williams es­tab­lished a new open record by be­com­ing the first lo­cal swim­mer to break the 30 sec­ond bar­ri­er in the 50m back­stroke with a time of 29.99 sec­onds at the Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence, Ma­coya, in the first meet to be host­ed by Sea Hawks. Swim­ming again at the same venue on Sun­day, the 15-year-old mer­maid, rep­re­sent­ing St Joseph Con­vent, San Fer­nan­do, low­ered the record to 29.78 sec­onds at the TSTT Foun­da­tion an­nu­al Na­tion­al Sec­ondary Schools' Meet host­ed by Tidal Wave Aquat­ic.

John-Williams, the Am­a­teur Swim­ming As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T fe­male "Swim­mer of the Year", con­tin­ued to add to her im­pres­sive na­tion­al record col­lec­tion–over 30 records–by low­er­ing her own mark with­in sev­en days. She has al­ready qual­i­fied for the 2010 youth Olympics to be held lat­er this year in Sin­ga­pore. She is cur­rent­ly in in­ten­sive train­ing geared to­wards this event. Adri­an Hinds of St Mary's and Anya Welch of SJC­POS were ad­judged the most out­stand­ing male and fe­male non-com­pet­i­tive swim­mers re­spec­tive­ly. Hinds won three gold in the back, breast­stroke and free events with his sil­ver in the but­ter­fly event. Welch sim­i­lar­ly won three gold in the but­ter­fly, with sil­ver in the back­stroke.

On the com­pet­i­tive side, 12 & un­ders Jabari Bap­tiste of Fa­ti­ma, and Syr­i­ah David of St Au­gus­tine Girls won the most out­stand­ing male and fe­male re­spec­tive­ly. Bap­tiste won all events in his age group, while David won three golds and a sil­ver in the back­stroke. Fa­ti­ma Col­lege, St Joseph's Con­vent Port of Spain, and St Au­gus­tine Se­nior Sec­ondary were crowned the boys, girls and co­ed­u­ca­tion­al cham­pi­ons re­spec­tive­ly among the 39 schools that par­tic­i­pat­ed. Fa­ti­ma con­tin­ued its dom­i­nance in the Boys' Cat­e­go­ry, again hav­ing the bet­ter of archri­val CIC. Thir­ty-three points sep­a­rat­ed the top two schools this year com­pared to 4.5 points last year. Fa­ti­ma al­so won the Best North School ti­tle.

Pre­sen­ta­tion San Fer­nan­do and Trin­i­ty East ex­changed po­si­tions this year plac­ing third and fourth re­spec­tive­ly. In the Girls' Cat­e­go­ry, St Joseph's Con­vent Port-of-Spain was the run­away win­ner. St Joseph's Con­vent San Fer­nan­do won the best South School ti­tle. Holy Name Con­vent again had to set­tle for third place. St Au­gus­tine re­grouped af­ter its fourth place fin­ish last year in the Co­ed­u­ca­tion­al Cat­e­go­ry to emerge a con­vinc­ing win­ner. Last year's win­ner In­ter­na­tion­al School of Port of Spain was sec­ond, with San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Sec­ondary third.

Re­sults:

GIRLS CAT­E­GO­RY

1 St Joseph's Con­vent, PoS 267; 2 SJC San Fer­nan­do 207.50; 3 Holy Name Con­vent 195; 4 Bish­op Anstey East 165.50; 5 St Joseph Con­vent's, St Joseph 119.50.

BOYS CAT­E­GO­RY

1 Fa­ti­ma Col­lege 294; 2 St. Mary's Col­lege 261; 3 Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege San­do 177; 4 Trin­i­ty Col­lege East 140; 5 Hillview Col­lege 130

CO­ED CAT­E­GO­RY

1 St Au­gus­tine Se­nior Sec­ondary 136; 2 In­ter­na­tion­al School PoS 79.50; 3 San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Sec 30; St George's Col­lege 28; North­gate Col­lege 26