Juniors excite swimming TD

Keisha Hill, Staff Reporter

National swimming technical director, Jackie Walter, believes the prospects of the island's top youngsters are good, given their decent showing at the XXIII Carifta Swimming Championships.

The championships ended on Monday in Aruba, with Jamaica placing fifth overall out of 15 countries. They won 32 medals - eight gold, 12 silver and 12 bronze - during the five-day event.

"Overall, I was pleased with the performance. If they keep on swimming they definitely have a good future to look forward to," Walters said.

Besides being satisfied with the team's performance, she feels particularly encouraged by exceptional swims from Danielle Boothe and Timothy Wynter.

Boothe and Wynter raked in gold, silver and bronze medals, in addition to setting new national age group and Carifta records.

Boothe won gold medals in the 11-12 girls 200m, clocking 2:49.73 to erase the previous games record of 2:52.69; and the 11-12 girls 100m breaststroke in 1:19.89, also a new national age group record. In the 11-12 girls' 200 metres individual medley, she broke the championship record, but had to settle for second in 2:31.99 in the race won by Barbados' Zabrina Holder, who clocked 2:31.57. Boothe earned another silver in the 50m breaststroke in 36.11.

Wynter broke the Carifta record of 2:28.93, which he had set in the preliminaries, to secure gold in the 11-12 boys 200m backstroke in 2:23.09.

He also struck gold and set a new games record in the 11-12 boys 50m backstroke in a time of 30.37, this against the previous record of 31.16. Wynter's third medal, a bronze, came in the 11-12 boys 100m butterfly in a time of 1:06.63.

"Most of our swimmers actually did personal best times and this is probably one of the fastest Carifta's I have ever seen," Walter said.

Brittany Kenny also mined gold in the 13-14 girls 200m backstroke, clocking 2:38.28.

Synchronised swim team performed well

Jamaica's synchronised swim team also performed well at the championships, placing third behind Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, respectively.

Shannon March won bronze in the 13-15 solo category while her team-mates, Tashna Smith-Edwards, Alexandria Hinds, Jamielya Shaw and Breann Campbell, all placed fifth in their events.