Jaden Mills beats Carifta A 50m free standard

Flying Fish Swimming Club ace Jaden Mills dipped comfortably under the Carifta A qualifying standard in the boys 13-14 long course 50-metre freestyle preliminaries on Sunday morning, during the penultimate session of the National Long Course Age Group Championships.

Dozens of swimmers challenged the finals at the National Aquatic Centre, Couva, at the closing session on Sunday night for a last chance to achieve the A, B and C standards set for next month's Carifta Championships.

Mills, who had just topped the 100m butterfly preliminaries but was unable to dip under the A and B standards, left nothing to chance in the subsequent 50m freestyle preliminaries, clocking 24.88 seconds, well within the A standard mark of 25.05 seconds.

Clubmate Aaron Colthrust finished runner-up in 25.63 seconds, below the Carifta B standard, in a pool dominated by Flying Fish swimmers.

Colthrust and Mills also achieved Carifta B standards in the boys 13-14 50 breaststroke, finishing first and third, respectively, in the final on Saturday night. Marlins’ Alejandro Agard, who finished second, also secured the B standard.

On Sunday morning, Marlins’ starlet Aimee Le Blanc secured the B standard in the girls 13-14 1500m freestyle finals, finishing in 19:28.95. Le Black set the national record last year in 19:06.42.

Darren Belfon of Point Fortin Aqua Darts dipped under another B standard in the morning session, winning the boys 15-17 100m butterfly preliminaries in 57.44 seconds.

On Saturday, Belfon topped the boys 15-17 100m backstroke preliminaries in one minute, .17 seconds – precisely the time needed to achieve the A standard, before returning in the evening to win the finals with an improved time of 59.75 seconds.

Belfon attained B standards in the 50m butterfly, 100m freestyle and twice in the 50m backstroke since Friday.

On Sunday morning, Marlins were again proudly represented by Zara Persico and Marena Martinez, who secured times below the C standard in the girls 11-12 50m freestyle preliminaries, following from successful showings over both sessions on Saturday, where they attained a number of Carifta B and C standards in other events over the weekend.

On Saturday night, Zuri Ferguson won the girls 15-17 200m freestyle finals and sealed another Carifta qualifying standard (B) in the process after clocking in at 2:11:18.

Apart from the Carifta standards, Ferguson set a new national long course record in the girls 15-17 100m backstroke, clocking 1:03.33 in the preliminaries on Saturday morning and was .06 second shy of her new record to win the final.

The National Long Course Age Group Championships saw scores of teens and pre-teens vying to achieve the standards for the Carifta Swimming Championships, being held in the Bahamas from March 29-April 7.

The final session concluded after press time on Sunday evening.