Swimmers shineon gloomy day

LeVaughn Flynn, Staff Reporter

Swimmers Danielle Boothe and Alia Atkinson nabbed two more gold medals at the Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships (CISC) at the National Stadium Pool yesterday, boosting Jamaica's bid to win their first CISC title.

Jamaica are currently ranked second with 357 points. Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) lead with 415 points and Puerto Rico are third with 292. The Bahamas (238) and the Dominican Republic (183) round off the top five.

During heavy rains that fell for most of the day, forcing organisers to scrap the preliminary round and go directly into a final, Boothe and Atkinson carried Jamaica's gold medal tally to six. Boothe won the 11-12 50m butterfly in 30.99 seconds to add to the bronze she won on Friday night in the 200m individual medley. Puerto Rico's Barbara Caraballo won silver in the 50m butterfly in 31.12, while Barbados' Zebrina Holder (31.39) won the bronze.

Three gold medals

Atkinson, who will represent Jamaica at the Beijing Olympics next month, has accounted for three of Jamaica's gold medals. She won the 100m butterfly in the girls' 18 and over yesterday to add to her 50m butterfly and 100m freestyle titles won on Friday night. She won the 100m butterfly in a time of 1:04.90 with Cuba's Heysi Villarreal (1:06.22) and Anay Gutierrez (1:06.88) winning the silver and bronze respectively. Her 50m butterfly time of 28.06 is a national record.

Brad Hamilton, who won the male equivalent on Friday, also set a national record of 25.96 seconds.

After witnessing both races on Friday, national technical director of swimming, Jackie Walter, said: "I'm feeling very pleased, not only because of the medals, but the two national records."

Two other national records have also been set so far. Breanna Roman, who won the girls' 11-12 100m freestyle on Friday, set an age-group record of 1:01.86. Kendese Nangle, who won a silver in the girls' 13-14 50m butterfly yesterday, also set an age-group record of 29.57 seconds.

With only swimming finals completed so far, Jamaica's synchronised swimming and water polo teams haven't contributed to the medal tally as yet. The total so far is 23 medals (six gold, five silver and 12 bronze). Only T&T (39) and Puerto Rico (24) have more medals than Jamaica.

A total of 15 medals (two gold, four silver and nine bronze) were won yesterday to add to the eight on Friday. Nangle won two medals yesterday, the 50m butterfly silver and the 50m freestyle silver in 28.34 seconds. Karline Theodora of The Netherland Antilles won that race in 28.32 seconds.

Silver medal

Ramon Walton was also a silver medallist in the boys' 15-17 100m backstroke in 1:03.00 behind Dominican Republic's Jean Luis Gomez (1:02.01). The boys' 18-and- over 400m freestyle team, which consists of Brad Hamilton, Jonathan Wong, Garrick Robinson and Ramon James, won Jamaica's fourth silver medal on the day in 3:49.06. T&T won the race in 3:47.97.

Yesterday's bronze medallists were Dominique Dawson (girls 15-17 100m butterfly 1:09.69), Octivia Gray (11-12 200m backstroke 3:00.80), Steven Moodie (13-14 50m freestyle 26.12), Jonathan Wong (18 and over 200m freestyle 2:03.66) and Brad Hamilton (18 and over 100m freestyle 54.28).

They were also four more bronze medals for the boys' 15-17 400m freestyle relay team, the girls' 11-12 400m freestyle relay team, the boys' 11-12 400m freestyle relay team and the girls' 13-14 400m freestyle relay team.

Action continues today beginning at 8: 30 a.m. and Amateur Swimming Association of Jamaica president, John Eyre, said the weather would dictate if the races are straight finals.