The trio of Zoe Anthony, Zarek Wilson and Nikoli Blackman continued to excel for defending overall champion T&T with a gold medal each at the Central American and Caribbean Confederation Amateur Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) Championship on Monday night.
Competing at the Roly Bisslik Olympic Pool in Oranjestad, Savaneta, Aruba, the T&T swimmers won three gold, six silver and three bronze medals on the penultimate night of competition to improve to a four-day total of 40 medals (ten gold, 19 silver and 11 bronze) for 757.5 points.
Anthony was first to add to T&T’s gold medal haul when she out-swam her rivals in the 11-12 Girls 200m individual medal in two minutes and 32.91 seconds, well ahead of Cayman Islands’ Jillian Crooks (2:36.70) and Jamaica’s Morgan Cogle (2:37.44), who were second and third, respectively.
The inseparable pair of Wilson (2:24.32) and Blackman (2:27.46) then produced yet another one-two T&T for gold and silver in the 11-12 Boys 200m individual medley with Cayman Islands’ Stefano Bonati, third in 2:29.75.
Blackman, then returned to win his first individual gold medal of the meet in the 11-12 Boys 100m freestyle in 57.61 followed by Bahamians Nigel Forbes (57.79) and Marvin Johnson (58.75) with T&T’s Josiah Changar, fourth in 59.26.
It was a very busy night for Blackman as he also picked up another silver medal, along with Wilson, Anthony, Gabrielle Vickles, and Malik Nelson.
In the 11-12 Boys 50m breaststroke, Forbes exacted revenge with gold in a meet record time of 32.15, well clear of Blackman (34.74) and Panama’s Edu Trejos (34.75) with Changar, fifth in 35.96.
Wilson had to settle for silver in the 11-12 Boys 200m butterfly in 2:21.11 behind Guatemalan Christopher Gossmann (2:18.28) with T&T’s Blackman, taking bronze in 2:27.83.
Anthony was a distant second in the 11-12 Girls 200m butterfly in 2:38.54 with Cayman Islands’ Allyson Belfonte taking gold in 2:36.35 and Colombia’s Sophia Ospina, bronze in 2:38.90 with T&T’s Caitlyn Look Fong (2:40.58), fifth.
Cayman Island’s Crooks topped the 11-12 Girls 100m freestyle in 1:01.72 ahead of Vickles (1:02.33) and Jamaican Morgan Cogle (1:02.59) with Anthony, fourth in 1:02.98.
Nelson was T&T’s other silver medal winner on the night, competing in the 13-14 Boys 100m freestyle with a time of 54.81 to trail Bahamian Lamar Taylor (53.09) with Honduran, Robelto Lorios, third, in 55.56.
A gold medal winner on Sunday night, Kael Yorke had to settle for a joint bronze medal finish 24 hours later in the 15-17 Boys 200m butterfly in 2:08.27, the same time as Honduran, Carlos Vasquez, and under the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) B standard time of 2:10.13.
Colombian Juan Urbano won gold in 2:04.94, well under the YOG A time of 2:05.73 while Guatemalan Fernando Ponce ended with silver in 2:07.51.
In the 15-17 Boys 800m freestyle relay, the quartet of Graham Chatoor, Aqeel Joseph, Yorke and Josiah Parag combined for a time of 8:06.30 for bronze. Colombia won gold in 7:55.98 and Curacao, silver in 8:00.68.
The swimming competition was expected to conclude last night.
Today, the CCCAN Open Water Championships will begin until Friday at Mangel Halto Beach with Anthony and Blackman competing in the 3 kilometres events.
