The Blue Marlins swim club was represented by a team of 18 swimmers at the recent meet in St Lucia.
The team was accompanied by Coach Neiasha Alexander and some very enthusiastic first time parents.
Zaryah Samuel was the Club’s lone competitor in the 7 – 8 girls category giving a commendable effort in 10 events.
There were 4 competitors in the boys 7 – 8 age group category. Hazen DaBriel achieved 4 Medals with Silver in both the 25m & 50m Freestyle events and Bronze in the 25m butterfly and the 50m backstroke.
He also placed 3rd in both the 25m freestyle and 50m freestyle Sprint Challenge events. We look forward to greater things from Hazen in the future.
The other swimmers in this age group category were Tyler Robinson, Nicholas DeFreitas and Jordan Child all performing quite well with personal best times from their allotted events.
This comprised the Gold medal-winning form in the relays, capturing Gold in both the 200m Medley and 200m Freestyle relay events.
They broke the record by 6 seconds in the latter event in a time of 2:59.26 previously set in 2016 by the Marlins Swim Club of Trinidad & Tobago.
Two stalwart girls represented the Club in the 9 – 10 age group category; Kennice Greene and Zariel Nelson represented themselves well by each capturing a bronze medal in the 100m fly and 50m freestyle respectively.
Zariel also managed a silver medal in the 800m Freestyle event.
Four girls entered the 11 – 12 age group category. Rhema Robinson captured a well deserving Gold in the 200m breaststroke while Adiah Phillips managed 1 silver medal in the 200m breaststroke.
Kelsea Nichols entered 7 events and Kevisha Richardson entered 5 events.
The quartet of Adiah, Kennice, Zariel and Rhema captured Bronze in both the 200m Freestyle and 200m Medley in the 9 – 12 age group relay events.
Three boys competed in the 9 – 10 age group category. Seth Byron – 10 events, Matthew Ballah – 7 events and Sebastian DeFreitas – 5 events.
The rest of the team comprised in the 13 – 14 age group category, Jaynika Williams and Breana Bruce achieved 1 and 4 top-eight finishes in their events respectively in their regional meet debut.
Jemani Robinson competed in the Boys 13 – 14 age group category taking part in 7 events. Kelly Jacobs was the lone swimmer of the Club in the 15 and Over age category achieving 3 top-eight finishes in his debut regional meet.
The Club continues to develop the younger swimmers as many achieved personal best times, and fosters early exposure to competitive swimming.
They also feature swimming as a great fun and friendship building experience for kids.
The meet was the usual competitive forum featuring 22 Clubs from the English and French-speaking Caribbean.
The swimmers braved long duration morning and evening sessions and at times less than ideal weather conditions.
