Donahue splashes to second gold medal

GABRIELA Donahue splashed away to her second gold medal of the championship, after winning the Girls 15-17 200m Individual Medley in a blistering time of 2:24:90 yesterday evening, at the 34th Carifta Swimming Championship, held at the Barbados Aquatic Centre, Wildey, Barbados.

Donahue, who has five medals thus far (two gold,three silver) said, “I have put in a lot of hard work, harder than I even expected and it got me to the places I wanted to be and that makes me happy.” She continued, “ I’m happy with the achievements thus far, it was a lot faster times than i expected.”

Anneliese Merry ensured that there would be two TT representatives on the podium after she sneaked in for the bronze medal in (2:30.66). Curacao’s Chade Nersicio (2:29.44) claimed the silver medal.

In the 13-14 Girls 200m IM, Zoe Anthony continued her consistency by bagging the silver medal in (2:29.49). Bermuda’s Elan Daley (2:25.26) won while, Cayman’s Avery Lambert (2:33.11) placed third.

Previously, Merry swam comprehensively to win her first individual gold medal of the championships, winning the 15-17 Girls 400m Individual Medley (IM) in a time of (5:19.29). TT’s Jada Chatoor added yet another medal to her collection when she bagged the bronze medal (5:21.91) after narrowly missing out to Cayman’s Sabine Ellison (5:21.85).

In the 13-14 category of the same event, Zoe Anthony was rewarded for her hard-work by copping bronze in (5:22.03). The race was eventually won by Cayman’s Avery Lambert (5:18.07) while Barbadian Adara Stoddard (5:20.53) placed second.

However, the boys weren’t so fortunate with Anthony Zachary (11-12) and Zarek Wilson (13-14) agonisingly missing out on medals by placing fourth while, William Reyes placed seventh in the 15-17 category.

Donahue continued her fine form by adding a silver medal to her already stacked championship tally. The US-based swimmer touched the line in a personal best of 1:05.09 in the 100m backstroke. Barbados’s Danielle Titus won in a record time of 1:04.60 while her compatriot and namesake Danielle Treasure got bronze (1:07.39).

The Boys 13-14 relay team blazed away to add yet another relay gold medal, this time in the 4x100m medley. The four-man team consisting of Zarek Wilson, Kyle West, Johann-Mathew Matamoro and Nikoli Blackman stopped the clock at (4:13.76). Bahamas was second (4:16.65) and Jamaica (4:20.26).

Jada Chatoor anchored the Girls 15-17 to a silver medal in 4:37.55. Her teammates Anneliese Merry, Vrisnelit Faure and Gabriela Donahue performed exceptional but Jamaica edged them for the gold medal in (4:36.83) while the host team Barbados (4.40.52) settled for Bronze.

TT fought their way to a bronze medal in a brisk 15-17 Boys final. Bahamas led from the start and proved too strong for the field, winning in a record time of (3.54.32). Jamaica secured second (4:02.69) while the quartet of Delroy Tyrell, Luke Gillete, Aqeel Joseph and Malik Nelson Clocked (4:04.48) for their bronze medal.