Tyrell Ce­les­tine, Alexan­dra Carr, and Spe­cial Olympian Trent Bethel were among the top T&T Mas­ters per­form­ers at the Bar­ba­dos Open Wa­ter Swim Fes­ti­val, held in Carlisle Bay from No­vem­ber 5-9.

​The T&T Mas­ters com­mu­ni­ty re­turned from the event with strength­ened bonds, re­newed en­er­gy, and up­lift­ing per­son­al achieve­ments across all four race dis­tances. Mas­ters swim­mers and sup­port­ing age-group ath­letes rep­re­sent­ed T&T across the fes­ti­val’s 1.5K, 3.3K, 5K, and 10K events.

​For sev­er­al, it was their first time com­pet­ing to­geth­er as a uni­fied Mas­ters del­e­ga­tion in Bar­ba­dos, cre­at­ing a warm, in­spir­ing at­mos­phere fu­elled by en­cour­age­ment, team­work, and com­mu­ni­ty pride, ac­cord­ing to Tehe­li Sealey, Team Rep­re­sen­ta­tive & Sec­re­tary, Aquat­ic Swim­ming As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (ASATT) Mas­ters Swim­ming Com­mit­tee.

​She said, “For the T&T Mas­ters com­mu­ni­ty, the Bar­ba­dos Open Wa­ter Swim Fes­ti­val cre­at­ed an in­cred­i­ble op­por­tu­ni­ty for team build­ing across both is­lands. Many of us had on­ly known each oth­er by name be­fore this trip, and over the week­end, friend­ships were formed, con­nec­tions were strength­ened, and the team spir­it was un­de­ni­able. Every swim­mer had a per­son­al ac­com­plish­ment, whether it was re­turn­ing to the sport af­ter many years, for­mer na­tion­al ath­letes step­ping back in­to open wa­ter, or in­di­vid­u­als striv­ing for per­son­al bests. It was a mean­ing­ful and mem­o­rable ex­pe­ri­ence for all of us.”

​Ce­les­tine placed sec­ond over­all in the 10K on No­vem­ber 9, fin­ish­ing sec­ond in the Men’s 24 and over age group with a time of two hours, 20 min­utes, and 26 sec­onds (2:20:26). Mean­while, Carr placed first in the Women’s 24 and over cat­e­go­ry in 3:00:28. She was the sec­ond women’s fin­ish­er and placed eighth over­all.

​Bethel’s suc­cess came in the 5K. He clocked 1:13:21 to place first in the Men’s 25-34 age-group and eighth over­all.

​T&T swim­mers not on­ly showed a strong pres­ence in the 1.5K, 3.3K, 5K, and 10K events but proud­ly placed sec­ond in the fes­ti­val’s Best Dressed Team com­pe­ti­tion—a fun, spir­it­ed cat­e­go­ry in­tro­duced last year that con­tin­ues to cel­e­brate cul­ture, cre­ativ­i­ty, and uni­ty among teams across the re­gion.

​While sev­er­al swim­mers train reg­u­lar­ly with the Trin­i­ty Mas­ters Swim Club dur­ing their week­ly open-wa­ter ses­sions on Sun­days at Mara­cas Bay, the del­e­ga­tion to Bar­ba­dos in­clud­ed ath­letes from var­i­ous oth­er swim clubs, in­for­mal Mas­ters train­ing groups, re­turn­ing for­mer com­pet­i­tive swim­mers, and in­de­pen­dent open-wa­ter ath­letes.

​Wendy Am­mon, 3.3K sil­ver medal­list in the women’s 65–69 age-group, was al­so proud of the team’s per­for­mance.

​She said, “Our tiny team showed big re­sults. We may be old­er, but we’re cer­tain­ly not cold. We still have plen­ty of fight in us — and we’re go­ing down fight­ing!”

​Be­yond the suc­cess in Bar­ba­dos, sev­er­al Mas­ters swim­mers are now prepar­ing for sev­er­al lo­cal open wa­ter events, in­clud­ing the Sub­way Mara­cas Open Wa­ter Clas­sic and the Trin­i­ty Mas­ters 5-to-5 Is­land Swim. Oth­ers will re­turn to the pool for the ASATT De­cem­ber In­vi­ta­tion­al at the Na­tion­al Aquat­ics Cen­tre in Cou­va, while oth­ers con­tin­ue train­ing for in­ter­na­tion­al open wa­ter events in the Ocean­Man Se­ries and be­yond. Sev­er­al Mas­ters ath­letes have al­ready be­gun prepar­ing for the PanAm Mas­ters Cham­pi­onships in Ar­genti­na in 2026.

​Spe­cial thanks were sent out to the Trin­i­ty Mas­ters Swim Club for wel­com­ing and host­ing swim­mers every Sun­day at Mara­cas Bay, of­fer­ing a con­sis­tent space for Mas­ters’ de­vel­op­ment, con­fi­dence build­ing, and open-wa­ter safe­ty.

RE­SULTS

1.5K Swim

Men: Trent Bethel 21.29 - 3rd (25-29), Kei­th Daniel - 32.07 - 9th (65-69), David Milne - 36.04 - 8th (Men's 35-39)

Women: Mixi Men­doza 28.30 - 6th (50-54), Bib­iane Eva Klaus - 30.58 - 4th (55-59), Shinelle Pad­more - 35.24 - 20th (50-54), Joann Barsa­tie-Am­mon - 37.33 - 9th (45-49), Al­ice Besson - 39.53 - 15th (55-59), Ali­na Dhanoolal - 43.49 -12th (35-39), De­mi Pouchet - 44.09 -11th (30-34)

3.3K Swim

Men: Kei­th Daniel 1:16.19 - 5th (65-69), David Milne 1:17:23 - 5th (35-44)

Women: Mixi Men­doza 1:04.30 - 5th (Women's 45-54), Wendy Am­mon 1:06.56 - 2nd (65-69), Raquel Dow­den 1:11.16 - 9th (45-54)

5K Swim

Men: Trent Bethel (Spe­cial Olympics) 1:13:21 - 1st (25-34) 8th over­all, Apol­lo Ar­joon 1:49.51 - 4th (35-44)

Women: Jacque­line Jod­han 1:40:44 - 8th (55-64), Tehe­li Sealey 1:55.29 - 12th (45-54), Bib­iane Eva Klaus 1:55.52 - 14th (55-64), Al­ice Besson 2:25.23 - 16th (55-64)

10K Swim

Men: Tyrell Ce­les­tine 2:20.26 - 2nd (24 -) 2nd over­all, William Carr 2:49.22 1st (Men's 45-54) 5th over­all, John Pro­cope 3:00.52 - 3rd (45-54) 9th over­all, Tim­o­thy Sinanan 3:43.14 - 3rd (25-34), Jens-Ul­rich Pop­pen 4:31.01 - 5th (45-54)

Women: Alexan­dra Carr 3:00.28 - 1st (24-) 2nd fe­male & 8th over­all, Chelsea­ia Char­ran 4:02.48 - 1st (25-34)