Gold in swimming, diving for TT

But the spotlight was on 11 year old Alyssa Ramlakhan, this country’s first diver, who won gold in the springboard 12-13 female category.

Ramlakhan, one of TT’s youngest divers, set the stage for more golden performances from the TT contingent for the remainder of the Championships.

Gabriella Donahue copped gold in the final of the Girls 13-14 50m Backstroke event when she stopped the clock at 30:73 seconds, setting a national record in the event. Bermuda’s Logan Watson-Brown and Danielle Titus, representing Barbados, joined her on the podium as they clocked 31:44 and 31:45, respectively.

Dylan Carter snatched gold and broke the national record, yet again, in the 18 & Over 100M Butterfly with a time of 52:73 seconds, lowering the previous record and his preliminary round time of 53:87 seconds. Christian Awah also secured the silver medal for TT in the race with his time of 55:78 while N’Nhym Fernander of the Bahamas earned bronze in 56:07.

In the Women’s 18 & Over backstroke, TT also took the gold and silver medals after Kristen Julien and Ariel Cape stopped the clock at 30:39 and 31:05, respectively, ahead of Panama’s Nimia Melisa Mura time of 31:18 in third.

Team TTO scored the majority of the points in the relays after winning the 200m Freestyle in both the Mixed 13-14 and Mixed 18 & Over events. Jonathan Constantine, Aqueel Joseph, DeNicha Lewis and Jada Chatoor finished ahead of their competitors in the 13-14 age group with a time of one minute and 46 seconds. They were trailed by Puerto Rico who finished in 1:48:11, and Bermuda’s 1:48:49.

In the 18 & Over category, a similar scenario took place when local athletes Joshua Romary, Dylan Cater, Kristen Julien and Cherelle Thompson claimed the goal medal in a national record time of 1:38:40.

They were also followed by the Puerto Ricans who set a national record of their own with a time of 1:42:33. Panama and Cuba both stopped the clock at 1:44:63 as they tied for third.

Despite setting a record of their own in the Mixed 15-17 200M freestyle event, the local athletes’ had to settle for silver behind the Puerto Ricans. Puerto Rico’s new national record for the event stands at 1:40:46 whereas TT’s record of 1:41:44 held off Panama’s own record time of 1:42:25.

Jamaica stole the show in the Mixed 11-12 category of the same event as they broke their record with a time of 1:49:70. Bermuda joined in on the record-breaking action, stopping the clock at 1:50:09 as they claimed the silver medal. TT’s youths which included Kadon Williams, Zarek Wilson, Savannah Chee-Wah and Zoe Anthony followed the script with a record of their own to cop the bronze in 1:51:03.