SAINT LUCIA finished 5th overall with 314.5 points at the recently-held 23rd edition of the Goodwill Swimming Championship in Guyana.
Trinidad and Tobago emerged champions for the fourth year.
The team, which comprised 26 swimmers, captured 6 gold, 8 sliver and 7 bronze medals at the meet.
Over 200 swimmers from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Saint Lucia, newly-invited countries Bahamas and Grenada, and host country Guyana competed at the three-day tournament.
The top performing swimmers included Antoine Destang (3 gold medals in 50-metres freestyle, 100-metre freestyle and 50-metres butterfly; 2 silver medals in 100-metres individual medley and 50-metres breaststroke; and 1 bronze medal in 50-metres backstroke from a total of 6 events).
Destang walked away with the top points in the overall 8-and-Under Goodwill swimmers category and also broke five age group records: in 50-metres freestyle, 100-metres freestyle, 100-metres IM, 50-metres butterfly and 50-metres breaststroke.
Ziv Reynolds won double gold in the 50-metres and 100-metres breaststroke; Omar Alexander gold in the 50-metres freestyle and bronze in the 500-metres backstroke; and D’Andre Blanchard silver in the 50-metres breaststroke.
Naekeisha Louis won silver in 50-metres butterfly; and Marisa Louisy bronze in 50-metres backstroke.
The relay team comprising Naekeisha Louis, Jorja Mederick, Sunshine Mauricette and Anya Hilaire won silver in the 200-metres freestyle and bronze in 400-metres freestyle.
Head Coach of the Saint Lucia team, David Peterkin, indicated that throughout the meet, it was a joy to see the Saint Lucian swimmers compete against some of the region’s best and showing their appreciation for being selected on their national team.
Peterkin said the team’s performance was more than expected and was encouraging. He also said the swimmers were in good spirits.
Barbados was selected to be the host country of the 24th edition of the Goodwill Championship in 2018.