A huge acheivement and really puts us in a different light regionally. Some amazing performances despite many of the team being under the weather due to the conditions in Venezuela.
T&T had its best ever finish at the Central American and Caribbean Confederations (CCCAN) Aquatic Championship. It placed second in the 20-country bi-annual six-day competition which ended in Barquisimeto, Venezuela on Sunday. Going into the final night of swimming at the Bolivarianas Pool, host Venezuela was assured of repeating as champions in the 26 edition of the event with a lead of over 600 while second placed T&T had a slim 57-point lead over Mexico.
However, the local quintet of England-based Christian Homer, Kimberlee John-Williams, US-based Sharntelle Mc Lean, Cadell Lyons and Joshua Romany all splashed to gold medals which made certain of the runner-up spot on the team and medal tables. The 16-year-old Homer won his third gold in the 15-17 Boys’ 100 metres backstroke in 59.29 seconds to beat countryman, Lyons (1:00.86) and Cuban, Alex Hernandez (1:01.30) into the silver and bronze medal places.
Within the space of five minutes, John-Williams added to T&T’s gold medal haul when she outswam her rivals in the 13-14 Girls’ 100 metres backstroke in 1:07.41 seconds for her second golden swim.
Lyons went one better in the 15-17 Boys’ 50 metres freestyle as he outsprinted the field to take gold in 23.67 seconds to set a new national record, which erased his old mark of 23.90 set in Jamaica last year. It was Lyons’ third gold over the six days of competition, and his third personal best time set, also. Romany then added his name to list of gold medallists for the record breaking T&T swimmers with a sizzling 24.92 clocking in the 13-14 Boys’ 50 metres freestyle final, his personal best for his second gold of the Championship. Other gold medal winners for T&T included Joel Sankar, three-time gold medallist Dylan Carter and Cherelle Thompson while John-Williams also had a bronze medal swim on the night.
Sankar swam to his silver medal in the 18 & Over 400 metres individual medley in a time of 4:45.44 to trail Venezuela’s Maaylor Salgueiro (4:44.61 ). El Salvador’s Pamela Benitez (26.65 seconds) won gold ahead of Thompson, and Suriname’s Chinyere Pigot (27.18 seconds) in the 15-17 Girls’ 50 metres freestyle while John-Williams picked up the lone bronze medal on the night, in the 13-14 Girls’ 50 metres freestyle (28.22).
Host Venezuela dominated the final night with the` more gold medal performances to end with 159 medals, 74 gold, 48 silver and 37 bronze for 1,767 points. Second was T&T with 652 points, its highest total ever from 54 medals (16 gold, 23 silver,15 bronze), another record. Third was Mexico with 537 points followed by Guatemala (472), Honduras (299) and Costa Rica (269). The T&T team arrived home yesterday along with the water polo contingent, which secured one silver and two bronze.
