Aquathlon athletes impress at TTTF School Series

NICKOLAI MADRAY

The fourth edition of Trinidad and Tobago’s Triathlon Federation (TTTF) School Series continued yesterday as the Aquathlon aspect took place at a new, centralised location in Couva. The National Aquatic Centre was the venue chosen and the switch paved a way to increase the number of participating schools and athletes compared to previous years.

Usually the event would be northwest-based, but the Couva facility supports a wider range of sports and was considered to be much safer than previous locations.

The Federation also sought to offer and expose the sport to more students and schools throughout the country. The Primary Schools category of the aquathlon got on the way at 8 am and finished at noon, while the secondary schools aspect began at 3.30 pm.

The first category of the Primary Schools Championships was the Girls seven-and-Under age group where Samantha de Freitas-Manswell (Bishop’s Jr) copped gold with a time of four minutes and 30 seconds. St. Monica’s Abella Mollenthiel finished second in four minutes 49 seconds while Malia Whiskey (Bishops Jr) secured bronze with her time of 5:37.

In the Boys equivalent, Aziz Hadeed (Dunross) grabbed the gold medal in 4:29 minutes. Bishop’s Jr entrant, Malachi Leach, made his way across the line in 4:31 to claim second place and Rafael Wan (ISPS) made his way to bronze in 4:39 minutes.

The Girls 8-9 year category followed and Holy Name Prep’s Gianna Pichery claimed the top spot with her time of 6:12 minutes. St Andrew’s Jade Haynes secured the silver medal in 6:22 while Jenaya Richens (Sacred Heart Girls) got the bronze in 6:34 minutes. Dunross’ Finn de Freitas managed to finish in the number one spot, in the Boys version, after pushing to the finish line in 5:28 minutes. Adam Scoon’s (St. Monica’s) 5:39 minutes beat Jaden Mills (Med Home School) in a sprint to the line, finishing ahead of his rival’s 5:40 minutes.

In the Girls 10-11 category, Madara Edwards, representing Montrose Government, ran away with the gold in 11:11 minutes as her closest competitor, sister and schoolmate Maiden Edwards finished second with a time of 11:23 and Ludmilla Genther (St Andrew’s) got the bronze in 11:27.

Zachary Anthony of Bishop’s claimed the gold of the boys equivalent in 10:24.22, just ahead of his St. Andrew’s rival, Tristan Scott, 10:24.35 minutes. Shaelen Reece also of Bishops secured the bronze medal in 10:42 minutes.

Amelia Rajack (St. Peter’s) was the first to finish the Girls 12-and-Over age group in 16:41 minutes while Makaira Wallace’s (Dunross) 16:49 minutes was enough to claim the silver medal and the bronze medalist of the category was Mekelle Cedeno in 17:02 minutes.

Bishops’ Nikoli Blackman secured gold in 15:11 minutes and James Castage-Hay of St Andrew’s copped silver with his time of 16:01 minutes. Dunross’ Danial Shaw left with the bronze finishing in a time of 16:14 minutes.

Bishops Jr Team I went on to secure the gold medal in the primary school’s relay event with a time of 8:52 minutes while Dunross Team II finished in second with a time of 9:21 minutes. Dunross Team III bagged the bronze in the event in 9:25 minutes.

The Secondary Schools’ aspect took place soon after as athletes had to complete a 2.4-kilometre run, followed by a 400-metre swim and another 1.6km run. In the 13-and-Under category, Fatima’s Luke Ferreira won gold in 15:05 minutes and Tunapuna Secondary’s Keron Kotiah grabbed silver in 15:34.

Leading the way in the 16-and-Over age group was Kareem Mason of St. Mary’s College with a time of 28:40 minutes. He was followed by QRC’s Sergio Des Vignes in 28:52 minutes and Trinity East’s Liam Trepte in 29:26 minutes.