The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Prior to the CARIFTA Swimming Championships, head coach Andy Knowles said he expected his 36-member team to “compete with the top tier teams this year” at the 29th edition of the meet.

After two days, the Bahamas has indeed been one of the top performing teams at the meet in Savaneta, Aruba, led by a series of gold-medal performances from several CARIFTA veterans.

In last night’s closing session, Team Bahamas claimed its first medals of the evening in the 200m freestyle.

Albury Higgs won silver in the girls’ 13-14 event in 2:11.93 seconds, just behind Hannah Gill of Barbados who clocked in at 2:11.52.

Joanna Evans took gold in the girls’ 15-17 event in 2:05.52.

In the boys’ 11-12 50 metre butterfly, the Bahamas took both gold and silver when Samuel Gibson finished first in 28.72, followed by Darren Laing in 29.51 to highlight day two.

Complete medal standings and point totals following day two were unavailable up to press time last night.

The meet is slated to continue today with the schedule, including the 200m IM, 50m breaststroke, 100m freestyle, 200m butterfly and freestyle relay.

At the end of day one, the Bahamas led the point standings with 163 points and collected a total of 14 medals - four gold, six silver and four bronze.

The 200m breastroke netted several medal-winning performances.

Izaak Bastian got the Bahamas off to a promising start with a gold medal finish in the boys’ 11-12 race. He finished in 2:39.63 while teammate Luke Thompson just missed the medal podium, placing fourth in 2:46.60.

Albury Higgs followed with a gold medal in the girls’ 13-14 division in 2:41.04, well ahead of second place finisher, Rebecca Lashley of Barbados in 2:48.78.

Fellow Bahamian Victoria Russell took  bronze, just one tenth of a second behind in 2:48.79.

Tyler Russell took bronze in the boys’ 13-14 divison in a time of 2:37.45 while Joshua Wong finished fourth in 2:37.70.

In the 50m backstroke, Dionisio Carey claimed the only medal for the Bahamas with a bronze medal in the boys’ 15-17 race. He finished in 28.01.

A single medal came in the 100m butterfly when Samuel Gibson took second place in the boys’ 11-12 race in 1:05.83s.

Team Bahamas closed out the night with a trio of medals in the 400m freestyle relays.

In the boys’ 11-12 division, the team of Gibson, Bastian, Darren Laing and T’Lez Foulkes finished second in 4:06.94.

The girls’ 15-17 team also swam to a silver medal when Doran Reed, Simone Sturrup, Andreas Weech and Joanna Evans finished second in 4:07.51.

Kohen Kerr, Gershwin Greene, Drew Bastian and Dustin Tynes took third in the boys’ 15-17 event in 3:40.55.

At the 2013 meet in Kingston, Jamaica, the Bahamas finished fifth in the team scoring with 509 points and was sixth in the medal count with 29, including eight gold, 10 silver and 11 bronze.

Guadeloupe topped the list with 742, followed by Trinidad and Tobago with 698, Aruba with 659 and Jamaica with 584. 

In the medal count, Aruba won with 21 gold, 16 silver and 12 bronze for a total of 49. 

Trinidad & Tobago was second with 47 (21 gold, 14 silver and 12 bronze), Barbados got third with 41 (20 gold, nine silver, 12 bronze), Guadeloupe was fourth with 59 (14 gold, 27 silver, 18 bronze) and Jamaica rounded out the top five with 40 (12 gold, 13 silver, 15 bronze).