Destang and Dorville Excel at (CCCAN) Swim Championships

Saint Lucian swimmers Antoine Destang and Tristan Dorville, representing the Bolles Academy, secured all four medals in the Boys 15-17 group at the 2024 edition of the Central American & Caribbean Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) Championship.

The championship concluded over the weekend (June 23) after starting seven days earlier. More than 750 swimmers from 30 territories competed in the Mexican city of Monterrey, the host site for the XXXVI  CCCAN meet.

Despite challenges, including a tropical storm that halted proceedings on Thursday and Friday, resulting in the elimination of many preliminary events, there was a healthy dose of success for Caribbean teams.

Destang claimed gold in the 100m butterfly and 50m butterfly, while Dorville secured the silver and bronze medals in these events, respectively.

The Saint Lucian duo and Team Saint Lucia achieved a commendable position despite facing challenges.

Mexico emerged as the overall winners, followed by Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados secured the fifth position on the medals table with 19 medals, while Saint Lucia finished in the 11th spot with four medals.

Notable performances included Danielle Treasure and Heidi Stoute from Barbados, and Jaiya Simmons from Saint Lucia.

For Barbados, Danielle Treasure took one of Barbados’ six gold medals in the women’s 18 & Over 200m backstroke. But it was Heidi Stoute whose stellar performance lifted her team. In the girls 13-14 division, she got five individual gold medals, sweeping all distances of the freestyle – 800m, 400m, 200m, 100m, and 50m.

Also, in the 13-14 class, the versatile Jaiya Simmons is bringing home silver in the 100m freestyle, 200m butterfly, and 400m individual medley, and bronze in the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly.

Stoute and Simmons also helped their girls 13-14 team, including Isabella Mayers and Toria Alleyne, to three relay silver medals, in the 800m freestyle, 400m freestyle, and 400m medley relay.

There was further joy in the girls 11-12, where Aliyah Greaves grabbed silver in the 50m backstroke, and Kaija Eastmond bronze in the 50m butterfly.

Among the boys, Michael Sobers acquired silver in the 200m backstroke for the 11-12 division. Victory Ashby also took silver in the 13-14 100m butterfly. Alex Sobers was a bronze medallist in the 18 & Over 100m freestyle.

Additionally, there were calls for governance reform within the CCCAN organization. The representatives are calling for ratification of the organisation’s constitution, and for fresh elections to be convened in the coming months.