SAINT Lucian youth swimmer, Fayth Jeffrey, who currently resides in Barbados with her parents due to work commitments, set the records straight this past weekend when she smashed eight of Saint Lucia’s 9-10 age group records.
Competing in the Barbados Amateur Swimming Association (BASA) Short Course National Championship which took place at the Barbados Aquatic Centre in Wildey, Jeffrey went on to smash two of her own records along the way. Also falling by the wayside were records set by Naima Hazell, Jorga Mederick, Eden Crick and Katelin Samuel, all national swimmers.
When the dust settled, Fayth had a total of 10 Short Course Records (SCR), she also tied for 1st place in the age group High Point Awards with 77 points.
According to her mother Donna Kaidou, who spoke to this reporter via telephone following the championship, “She was amazing all throughout the meet; Fayth improved all her times out of Athe 13 events which she competed in. I am so proud of her”.
With such lightning performance at the Barbados Aquatic Centre, she has now qualified for the annual Carifta Swim Championship 2021 scheduled for Barbados, having achieved 5AA motivational times in the Girls 11-12 Age Group.
Old records smashed and new ones set by Fayth includes the 100 metres Freestyle of 1 minute 10.02 seconds, set/held by Naima Hazell in 2016 at Goodwill Swim Meet. The new record set at BASA is 1 minute, 08.09 seconds.
The 200 metres Freestyle old record of 2 minutes, 42.21 seconds, set/held by Jorga Mederick in 2016 at the 26th Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) championship was smashed to a new record of 2 minutes, 31.56 seconds.
The 400 metres Freestyle old record of 5 minutes 38.55 seconds, set/held by Fayth Jeffrey in 2019 at the 29th OECS championship was also smashed with the new record being 5 minutes 07.37 seconds.
The 50 metres Butterfly old record of 33.46 seconds, set/held by Eden Crick in 2012, was replaced with a new record of 32.98 seconds.
The old 100 metres Butterfly of 1 minute 20.25 seconds set/held by Katelin Samuel in 2012 Axis Meet, was overcome by the new record of 1 minute 13.52 seconds.
The old 200 metres Breaststroke record of 3 minutes 15.65 seconds set/held by Eden Crick in 2012 was replaced by the new record of 3 minutes 06.06 seconds at Axis Meet.
The 100 metres Individual Medley at 1 minute 17.81 seconds set/held by Naima Hazell in 2016 at Summer Splash was replaced by a new record of 1 minute 14.52 seconds.
The old 200 metres Individual medley record of 2 minutes 59.31 seconds, set/ held by Jeffrey in 2019 Goodwill Swim Meet, was also replaced by 2 minutes 41.79 seconds.
Let the story be told, for the age group 9-10. Jeffrey, over the past two years has set a total of eight Long Course Records and 15 Short Course Records. At present she holds five Long Course Records in that age group breaking a few of her own along the way.
Fayth will be in action this weekend representing the Pirates Swim Club at the 2nd annual Open Invitational Swimming competition dubbed ‘Bridging the Gap’ 2020. The event is organized by Dolphins Swim Club in collaboration with the Barbados Amateur Swimming Association (BASA).
She will be competing in the 50 and 100 metres fly; and the 100 and 200 metres breaststroke.
Jeffrey last represented Saint Lucia at the 29th edition of the OECS swimming championship in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in 2019, finishing third overall in her age group, capturing silver in the 400 metres and Bronze in the 100 metres Individual Medley setting an age group record along the way.
