Source: The Guardian Trinidad.
T&T swimmers Joshua Mc Leod and Dylan Carter won their fourth individual gold medal each when the 27th Central American and Caribbean Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) Championship continued in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico on Thursday night. The 20-year-old Mc Leod, who had already splashed to gold in the 18 & Over boys’ 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke in CCCAN record time, and the 100m freestyle, stopped the clock on 54.95 seconds in the 100m butterfly. It was a new personal best, just 0.01 second off the CCCAN record held by Joshua Ilika since 2003. Second was Nicaragua’s Victor Lopez (56.77) and third, Suriname’s Marcelino Richaards (56.85).
Earlier on, Carter picked up his fourth gold medal when he touched the wall first in the 13-14 boys’ 100m butterfly in 58.10 seconds. Guatemala’s Alfaro Jorge took silver in 58.37 and Mexico’s Daniel Balado, bronze in 59.96.The local swimmers also bagged two 400m freestyle relay gold medals, two silver and one bronze.
The 15-17 boys’ relay quartet of Sean Roget, Jonathan Cabral, Kareem Baptiste and Joshua Romany won gold in 3:36.72 ahead of Puerto Rico (3:37.47) and Mexico (3:41.66). Mc Leod earned a fifth gold of the meet when he combined with his 18-year-old brother, Abraham, Anthony Edwards and Caryle Blondell for the top spot in the 18 & Over boys’ 400m freestyle relay in 3:31.60, with Bahamas a distant second in 3:39.30 and Mexico, third in 3:46.61.
US-based Kimberlee John-Williams and the 13-14 boys’ freestyle relay team added silver while the 15-17 girls relay quartet got bronze. John-Williams stopped the clock in 1:04.88 in the 15-17 girls’ 100m butterfly to trail Puerto Rico’s Solyvelle (1:04.35) while Christbelen Ayala of Mexico got bronze in 1:05.79 and T&T’s Kadeja Phillip, seventh in 1:07.29. In the 13-14 boys’ 400m freestyle relay, Puerto Rico won in 3:42.09 ahead of the T&T quartet of Carter, Jabari Baptiste, Jeron O’Brien and Johnathan Gonzales (3:45.68) with Guatemala, third (3:45.68). John-Williams also teamed up with Rejan Chin, Phillip and Simone Maundy for third in the 15-17 girls relay in 4:13.35. First was Mexico (4:06.62) and second, Puerto Rico (4:06.85).
After four days of competition T&T had a total of 34 medals (16 gold, 13 silver, five bronze), to hold third place with last night and today’s finals to be completed. Puerto Rico leads with 58 (18 gold, 19 silver, 21 bronze) while Mexico is second with 40 (14 gold, 11 silver, 15 bronze). Guatemala is fourth with 23 (four gold, ten silver, nine bronze) and, Aruba, fifth with 21 (eight gold, six silver, seven bronze). The team returns home tomorrow at 11.10am.