Swimmers from St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Black Sands swim club brought home 22 gold, 13 silvers and 7 bronze medals and broke many meet records at the Rodney Heights Aquatic Centre Invitational Swim Meet held in St. Lucia on the weekend of March 31 to April 3.
Fifteen swimmers from Black Sands swim squad attended the meet, in which over 300 swimmers from numerous islands across the region Caribbean participated.
Outstanding efforts by Sophia Barwell, Caitlyn Polious, Christalle Wilson, Akayla Chrichton, and Tia Gun-Munro saw them swimming personal best times in all of their events.
Jamie Joachim proved natural talent runs in the family in producing an outstanding performance in the 50m rutterfly resulting in her winning gold as well as smashing the meet record.
Siblings Shné and Alex Joachim proved unbeatable, with Alex winning 9 golds, and 3 silver medals and Shné bringing home 6 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals.
Aaron and Mya DeFreitas, Shane and Paige Cadogan, Ria Adams, Cruz Halbich and Gerard Geowarsingh also all provided outstanding performances resulting in podium finishes for all.
Black Sands coach, Kyle Dougan, expressed delight and satisfaction from the results of the weekend’s competition, praising swimmers for their competitive drive and hard work resulting in such an impressive display.
Over the Easter weekend, Bequia hosted a 1.5k open water swim race. This tightly fought contest was won by 15-year-old Dillon Gooding, representing Black Sands Swim Squad.
Dougan also mentioned that his club is actively looking for more swimming talent and he would like to encourage and invite any persons interested in trying out the sport.
He can be contacted on 532-9462
Great. Who knows, possible future Olympic gold medalists. If only the powers to be, give some attention to sports as a way towards economic development. We are hearing about building a city at Amos Vale, well how about putting a high end sporting facility instead.
The best ways to invest in the future of the people, are through education and sports and thereby increasing the economic outlook of the country.
We need fresh ideas and new leadership in vincyland. The good thing is that both gonsalves and Eustace are in the twilight of their respective political careers and will soon step aside or push out. That day can’t come soon enough.