Trinidad and Tobago third at Carifta Triathlon, Aquathlon and Mixed Relay Champs

Aiden Nixon, Amelia Rajack and Issac Tuberoso walked away with individual medals which helped team Trinidad and Tobago place third overall at the recently concluded Carifta Triathlon, Aquathlon and Mixed Relay Championships.

The Championships were held between August 16-18 in Barbados and saw 12 teams from around the Caribbean competing – Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis and TT.

There were four age categories for both males and females at the games – 11-12, 13-15, 16-19 and 20-21.

Team TT had 29 competitors for the triathlon and aquathlon.

In the triathlon (11-12 male category), Nixon placed third after a photo finish with Barbados' Liam Beckles.

Both Nixon and Beckles clocked a time of 22 minutes and 25 seconds, but Beckles finished slightly ahead at the line.

A field of 27 competed in the same age category for the aquathlon – an event with swimming and running elements.

Nixon found the podium again, bettering his triathlon finish.

He placed second behind Yele Renwick-Williams from Barbados.

TT had six more competitors in the same event with Marcus Singh (16th place), Alexander Farnum (18th), Zane Sooknanan (19th), Khristian Allen (22nd), Lemuel Douglas (24th) and Julius Ennals (26th).

In the girls aquathlon (11-12 category), Charlotte Scott placed tenth.

In the 13-15 boys category (triathlon), Benjamin Carmino placed fifth.

The boys aquathlon for the same age category saw TT represented by five athletes out of 36 total participants.

Carmino had TT's best finish (11th), followed by Marcus Alexander (12th), Josiah Alexander (13th), Pierce Dalton-Brown (14th) and Karlon Browne (20th).

In the girls aquathlon for the same age category, Gianna Pichery placed tenth in a field of 30.

TT's Leah De Freitas (11th), Kylee Young (18th), Hailey Josa (24th) and Ziya Hosein-Livingstone (28th) were among the finishers.

In the triathlon for the male 16-19 category, Jacob Cox and Dante Pichery placed seventh and eighth, respectively.

In the female triathlon for the same age group, Janae Price narrowly missed out on the podium, finishing fourth.

Ashleigh Marie Rose Thomas was fifth and Charlotte Bayne finished seventh.

In the male aquathlon for the same age group, a total of 20 athletes participated.

Cox and Pichery in fifth and sixth were TT's best places.

Tristan Scott (ninth), James Castagne-Hay (12th) and Liam Tuberoso (13th) rounded off the aquathlon for TT athletes.

Rajack was TT's only female athlete to medal at the games. Her podium finish came in the female 16-19 aquathlon, placing third in a field of ten.

Thomas (sixth) and Sophia Samaroo (tenth) were the other two athletes competing in the category.

Issac Tuberoso was TT's lone competitor in the 20-21 category. He placed second in the male aquathlon rounding off TT's medal list.

Nixon's parents, Brian and Kyshelle Nixon, accompanied him on the trip and were proud of their son's accomplishments, knowing his challenges.

Brian said, "I felt happy for him because he worked hard.

"He trains by himself; he doesn't belong to a club and we train him at home."

Aiden said he felt happy with his two medals, but had a lot of self-doubt.

"I felt proud winning a medal, because I didn't think I was going to win in the triathlon.

"I was not really good at running."

Aiden said he runs and rides, four and five days for the week respectively – 30 minutes for each activity per day.

Brian urged more young athletes to get into triathlon and hopes the sport spreads into rural areas in the country.