Tornadoes blow away rivals to secure eighth title

Host Tornadoes Swim Club won the 11th staging of the Tornadoes Invitational meet yesterday at the National Stadium pool, wrestling away the trophy from main rival Y Speedos.

Tornadoes, who were winning the meet for the eighth time, collected 1,721 points while Y Speedos were a distant second with 1,152.5 points, followed by Blue Seal with 588.5.

National representatives Domi-nique Dawson (Tornadoes), Dominic Walter (Tornadoes), Octivia Gray (Electric Eel) and Kendese Nangle (Blue Seal), who are set to compete at the Caribbean Island Swimming Championships (CISC) here in July, all established meet records.

New record

Sixteen-year-old Dawson stopped the clock at 1:07.89 in the 100m butterfly, bettering the previous mark of 1:08.44. Walter, son of national technical director Jackie Walter, swam 4:26.05 in the boys' 13 and over 400m freestyle, taking 0.62 off the old mark. In the 11-12 100m breaststroke, Gray's record of 1:24.09 was almost three seconds better than the previous record, while Nangle stopped the clock at 28.01 in the 50m freestyle in the girls' 13 and over.

Commendable individual performances by Dominic Brown, Marissa Webber, Joseph Black and Justine Lopez aided Tornadoes' cause.

Gray was also a huge points-earner for Electric Eel, collecting 63 points on her own.

Tornadoes previously won in 1997, '98, '99, 2001, '04, '05, '06. Y Speedos won the inaugural meet in 1996 and every year in-between, except 2003 when there was no competition.

- LeVaughn Flynn