TT swimmers bag 17 medals in Jamaica splash

BROTHERS GEORGE and Nicholas Bovell each set a meet record while Sharntelle McLean won two final races as the Trinidad and Tobago swim team had a productive day on Friday, the opening day of the Caribbean Islandwide Swimming Championship in Jamaica. After the first day of action, Trinidad and Tobago led the medal tally with 17 (six gold, four silver and seven bronze), with Puerto Rico next on 16 medals and Jamaica 15. On the other hand, Puerto Rico were atop the points standings with 247, followed by TT on 210.5 and Jamaica with 181. George, who is using the meet as his final major preparation ahead of the Athens Olympics next month, twice broke the mark in the boys 18-and-over 100-metre freestyle.

During the morning’s heats, he clocked a blistering 51.75 seconds, smashing the previous time of 53.05 by Eduardo Lopez. And, in the final, the 20-year-old lowered his record when he touched the wall in 50.46 seconds. Nicholas Bovell won the boys 15-17 100m free in 52.26 seconds, erasing the previous standard of 52.27 set by A Portella of Puerto Rico in 1980. McLean, competing in the Girls 18-and-over category, sped to gold in the 100m free in 58.51 and the 50m butterfly in 28.05 seconds. Compatriot Linda McEachrane was third in 29.03. McLean and McEachrane teamed up with Melanie Charles and Krystal Huggins to place third in the Girls 18-and-over 400m freestyle relay in a time of four minutes 21.84 seconds. Jamaica placed first in 4:01.27 while Puerto Rico were second in 4:02.77.

Tron Johnson, in the Boys 18-and-over 400m individual medley, clocked four minutes 47.70 seconds, and Walter Romany, in the Boys 11-12 100m backstroke was timed at 1:08.34, for  Trinidad and Tobago’s other gold medals. The men’s and women’s waterpolo teams have also produced mixed results at the meet. On Thursday, the TT men’s team whipped Barbados 11-4 but the women’s outfit were trounced 12-6 by hosts Jamaica. On Friday, the national men’s team were 9-6 victors over Puerto Rico and, 24 hours later, they returned to the pool to defeat Curacao 4-3. But the national women were not so lucky as they were spanked 13-6 by the Puerto Ricans yesterday.

OTHER MEDALLISTS -
200m IM: (11-12 Girls) —  Samantha Rahael (silver) 2:43.22; (11-12 Boys) —  Ryan Rigues (silver) 2:33.28; Christian Homer (bronze) 2:33.59.
400m IM: (13-14 Boys) —  Joel Sankar (silver) 5:00.95; (15-17 Boys) —  John Littlepage (silver) 4:57.66.
100m freestyle: (11-12 Boys) —  Walter Romany (bronze) 1:00.55.
50m butterfly: (11-12 Boys) —  Walter Romany (bronze) 29.92.
400m freestyle relay: (15-17 Girls) —  Chantal Redon, Renee Pouchet, Donna Wickham, Ayeisha Collymore (bronze) 4:20.40; (15-17 Boys) —  Stuart Gillette, Stefan Mader, Anthony Schamber, Nicholas Bovell (silver) 3:39.91.