CONGRATULATIONS to JA : Jamaica end 31st Carifta Swimming Champs on high to improve their tally to 25 medals

Sunday, March 27, 2016 

Jamaica’s young swimmers ended on a high as they copped five medals to improve their tally to 25 on the final day of the 31st Carifta Swimming Championships in Martinique on Friday.

Members of Jamaica’s 15-17 bronze medal-winning 4X200m
relay team (from left) Mattheau Bonner, Jesse Marsh, Barak
Goren and Keenan Dols share a photo opportunity at the
 Carifta Swimming Championships in Martinique on Friday.

The young sensations entered the arena in search of seven medals to surpass last year’s haul of 25 medals, but remained in good spirits as they did just enough to equal the tally. They ended with eight gold, nine silver and eight bronze medals.

Despite not medalling in all their events, a number of Jamaica’s swimmers produced some creditable performance to achieve new personal best marks, while just missing out on a podium finish.

Jamaica’s first medal prospect was Britney Williams swimming out of lane eight in the girls’ 13-14 400-metre freestyle. Williams showed grit and determination, but just missed out on a podium spot as she ended fourth in a personal best time of 4:46.19 minutes. Nicholas Vale also narrowly missed out on the bronze in the boys’ 13-14 equivalent, as he, too, gave off a determined performance for fourth place in a personal best 4:21.66 minutes.

The in-form Emily MacDonald entered the girls’ 50m freestyle final as the favourite and she did not disappoint as she displayed class when finishing ahead of the field in a fast 28.15 seconds and lowering the previous national age-group record of 28.23 seconds held by Alia Atkinson.

Britney Williams with her silver medal won in the girls’
13-14 200m freestyle.

Kelsie Campbell added silver to her previous three gold medals when she placed second in the girls’ 15-17 50m freestyle, registering a new personal best of 27.13 seconds.

The 11-12 boys’ 100m breaststroke yielded another fourth-place finish courtesy of Rajiv Redhi, who clocked in at 1:19.48 minutes, but Bryanna Renuart kept Jamaica’s medal train rolling when she copped bronze in the girls’ 15-17 event in a time of 1:16.58 minutes.

Keanan Dols continued his rich vein of form and added another gold to his tally as he outswam Patrick Groters of Aruba to win the boys’ 15-17 200m backstroke, sending the Jamaican camp into a frenzy. Dols clocked in at 2:07.30 minutes to bring the curtains down on a successful Carifta career. more