Wilson, Carrington, Blackman swim to Carifta glory

Trinidad and Tobago added 14 more medals to their Carifta Swimming Championships haul after Saturday’s morning session at the Korsou Sports Centre and Pool, Curacao on Friday.

After splashing to five gold, two silver and four bronze on the opening day on Thursday, the TT contingent won six more gold, four silver and four bronze before Saturday’s evening session.

Recently crowned First Citizens Sports Foundation Junior Sportsman of the Year Nikoli Blackman resumed his stellar day-one form when he won gold in the boys’ 15-17 200m freestyle in one minute and 51.76 seconds (1:51.76) on Friday.

He beat to the line runner-up and Cayman Islands’ James Allison (1:52.87) and Bahamian bronze receiver Marvin Johnson (1:56.87).

Zarek Wilson added two more individual gold medals as he was unstoppable in the boys’ 15-17 50m butterfly and 100m backstroke.

In the former, Wilson clocked 24.95s while compatriot Blackman (25.01s) snagged silver and Bahamas’ Nigel Forbes (25.08s) earned bronze.

Later in the backstroke, Wilson topped the field once more in 58.40s and was the only swimmer to dip below the one-minute mark. Coming in second was Cayman Islands’ Will Sellars (1:00.52) followed by third-placed Johnson (1:00.92).

TT’s Liam Carrington also swam to double gold on Friday. He won the boys’ 13-14 100m backstroke in 59.66s, and like Wilson, was the only competitor to go below the minute mark. Second was St Lucia’s Antoine Destang (1:00.37) while Carrington’s countryman Darren Belfon (1:02.49) snagged bronze.

Carrington then joined forces with TT’s Liam Roberts, Belfon and Christiano Rivas to win the 13-14 400m medley relay. They touched the wall in 4:10.28. Bahamas (4:16.87) and Jamaica (4:20.55) rounded off the top three.

Silver also went to Carrington (2:00.36) in the 200m freestyle, Aaron Siewlal (5:44.00) in the 400m individual medley and the TT boys’ 15-17 400m medley relay team (3:58.82).

Additionally, Belfon added another bronze to his haul while Zachary Anthony also earned his first medal of the tourney, bronze, on Friday.

In the 50m butterfly, he finished third in 26.53s, behind St Lucian winner Destang (25.70s) and Haitian runner-up Christian Jerome (26.13s).

And in the boys’ 15-17 400m individual medley, Anthony stopped the clock on 4:54.36 to bag bronze. Beating him to the line was Guyana’s Raekwon Nowl (4:45.69) and Cayman Islands’ Dominic Hilton (4:51.94), respectively.

At Saturday’s morning session, Carrington won his first gold of the day when he topped the boys’ 13-14 800m freestyle field in 9:04.51 and Aimee Le Blanc splashed to bronze in the girls’ 13-14 1500m freestyle in 20:06.30.

At Saturday’s lunch break, TT were third on the combined male and female medal count, with 25 medals. Leading the pack are home team Bahamas with 41 medals followed by Cayman Islands on 28.