WITH close to 140 of Saint Lucia’s top competitive swimmers in competition mode, the second annual Lightning Aquatic Club Carnival Relay Swim Championships came to a successful end on Saturday April 28 at the Rodney Height Aquatic Centre.
Like last year the event generated the expected hype and fierce competition, excitement, combined with loud shouts coming from coaches, family members and friends cheering on for their respective team members throughout the five hour event.
Of the five participating clubs, Seajays was crowned champion with 646 points dethroning last year’ s champion Sharks Swim Club into second place with 638 points, Lightning Aquatic third with (344 points),fourth – Southern Flying Fish (175 points) and Boys Training Centre (9 points).
Here are some of the performances on the day; first to hit the pad in the 100 metre kickboard relay short course mixed 8 and under was Seajays in a time of 1:54.78, 2nd Sharks -1:56.17, 3rd Lightning Aquatic 2:04.43.
Girls 10 & under 100 SC metre freestyle relay 1st Sharks 1:19.39,2nd Southern Flying Fish 1:34.37, 3rd Sea Jay 1:35.83.
Boys 10&under 100 SC metres, 1st Sharks 1:08.50, 2nd Lightning Aquatic 1:08.63, 3rd Sea Jays 1:09.12.Girls 11-14 200 metres SC freestyle, 1Sharks 2:02.57, 2nd Lightning Aquatic 2:05.59, 3rd Seajays 2:11.84. Boys 11-14 200 SC metre freestyle, 1st Sharks 1:55.03, 2nd Seajays 2:12.30, 3rd Seajays 2:1683.
Girls 15 &Over 200 SC metre freestyle relay, 1st Sharks 2:05.61, 2nd Seajays 2:58.86.
Girls 8&under 50 SC metre butterfly, 1st Seajays 45.51seconds, 2nd Southern Flying Fish 1:02.08, 3rd SFF 1:08.75.
Girls 9-10 50 SC metre butterfly, 1st Zoe Bernard -Sharks 50.95 seconds, 2nd Jaida Henry -Seajays 1:04.55.
Girl’s 11-14 50 SC metre butterfly, 1st Naima Hazel (LA) 31.08 seconds, 2nd Naekeisha Louis (LA) 31.40 seconds, 3rd Caitlin Polius-Seajays 34.24 seconds.
Girls 13.14 50 SC metre butterfly, 1st MikailiCharlemange -Sharks 30.82 seconds, 2nd Sunshine Mauricette- Seajays 304.34 seconds, 3rd Maya Hilaire- Sharks 34.73 seconds.
Girls 15&Over 50 SC metre butterfly, 1st Mikaela Casimir-Sharks 31.11 seconds, 2nd Eden Crick-Sharks 34.12 seconds, 3rd Veronica Brown- Seajays 35.44 seonds.
Sylvester James (Seajays) continue his good run on form in the boys 8 &under 50 SC metre butterfly winning in a time of 52:00 seconds, ahead of Thaeden Antoine (Sharks) with a time of 52.73. Certainly two bright spots for swimming in Saint Lucia.
Karic Charles 34.94 seconds took charge of the boys 9-10 50 SC metre butterfly to win ahead of TherronHerelle (Seajays) 36.25 seconds and Tristan Dorville (Seajays) 36.27 seconds).
In the boys 13-14 200 SC metre breaststroke relay the quartet of Ziv Reynolds, Allandre Cross, Dylan Mauricette and Jakob Harrison (Sharks) 2:36.73 was enough for victory of Seajays 1 in 2:54.11, and Seajays 2 with a time of 2:54.49.
The action shifted into high gear with one of the most talked about event on the day, mixed 100 SC meter t-shirt relay, which included coaches, parents and athletes. The action in the pool brought down the roof when Karetta Charles, Natasha Calderon, Karen Sylvester and Sherma Bernard showed their yesterday talent for their clubs. LA actually won that event in a time of 1:39.78, 2nd Seajays 1 (1:55.51) and 3rd Seajays 2 (2:22.98).
LA president, Tessa Louis, said, “It is never easy to stage an event of that magnitude, the excitement was at an all-time high. However, LA was thankful for the assistance rendered by the other clubs, the Saint Lucia Amateur Swimming Association for sanctioning the event, Diane Worrell, Sue Dyson and the entire officiating team on deck.”
She said, “We now trun our attention in preparing LA swimmers for the Barbados Amateur Swimming Association (BASA) Invitational May 24 -27, 2018. In terms of the team members and officials travelling, an official release will be made in the coming days. In 2017 at BASA Invitational LA finished tied for 5th position overall and took home 3 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze, we are hoping to better our performance in terms of medal and times this time around.”
Louis took the time out to thank the many sponsors who made this year’s event a success; especially Rubis West Indies Limited who came on board for the first time. “We look forward with our continued collaboration with them.” Noted Louis.
