Trinidad and Tobago’s Persico, Carrington into Carifta swim finals

Trinidad and Tobago swimmers Zara Persico, Liam Carrington, Zuri Ferguson, and Ethan McMillan-Cole all qualified with the fastest time in their respective events when the 37th Carifta Swimming Aquatic Championships swam off at the Betty Kelly-Kenning Aquatic Centre in the Bahamas yesterday.

Many TT swimmers qualified for finals with solid performances in the preliminaries. Persico is a medal contender in the girls 11-12 50m backstroke after ending the preliminaries in 32.62, the quickest time of the 27 swimmers. Taylor Marchan, also of TT, will join Persico in the final after ending seventh in 34.45.

Ferguson sent a warning to her opponents with a first-place finish in the girls’ 15-17 50m backstroke in 29.74. Carrington is also poised for a medal in the boys 15-17 50m backstroke, as he finished more than one second ahead of the field. He was the fastest qualifier with a time of 26.82.

McMillan-Cole showed his class in the boys 11-12 200m breaststroke preliminaries, qualifying with the best time of 2:51.48. TT had many other swimmers who qualified for finals. Alejandro Agard finished fourth in 29.69 seconds in the boys 13-14 50m backstroke.

Marchan and Zalayhar Lewis sealed a spot in the finals of the girls 11-12 200m breaststroke. The pair will have to improve in the final to be medal contenders after finishing with the seventh and eighth-fastest times of 3:16.15 and 3:19.91 respectively. Aimee Le Blanc sealed a spot in the final of the girls’ 13-14 200m breaststroke with a sixth-place finish of 3:07.84 in the prelims.

The boys’ 13-14 200m breaststroke was a strong event for TT as Agard and Aaron Colthrust were second and fifth respectively. Agard finished in 2:41.59 and Colthrust in 2:47.12. Liam Roberts advanced in the boys 15-17 200m breaststroke with a time of 2:36.51, which was quick enough for an eighth-place finish.

Le Blanc also competed in the heats of the girls 13-14 800-metre freestyle event. Le Blanc has the second-fastest time so far, but there were more heats last night. Other qualifiers for TT were Gabrielle Vickles (girls 18 and Over 50m backstroke), Asia-Marie Pouchet (girls 13-14 100m butterfly), Jaden Mills (boys 13-14 100m butterfly), Lyla Browne (girls 15-17 100m butterfly), Zoe Anthony (girls 18 and Over 100m butterfly), and Johann-Matthew Matamoro (boys 18 and Over 100m butterfly).

Home team Bahamas is demonstrating their ability, finishing with strong times in many events, along with Barbados. After press time on Saturday, many finals were held. Action at the meet continues today.