By Anselma Aimable
Caribbean Net News St Lucia Correspondent
Email: anselma@caribbeannetnnews.com
CASTRIES, St Lucia: A well organized and trained thirty-three member Grenada national swim team proudly retained the Sagicor sponsored swimming championships held at the Rodney Heights Aquatic Center (RHAC) over the past weekend, November 7 - 9.
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| The victorious Grenadian Team |
An impressive opening ceremony was held on November 7. Present at the opening ceremony was Lenard Montoute, St Lucia's Sports Minister who officially declared the meet open. Some other dignitaries included David Peterkin - OECS Sports Coordinator; Richard Peterkin - Olympic Committee President; representatives of Sagicor; LOTTO; Bank of Nova Scotia and Dr Marcus Day, President of the St Lucia Amateur Swimming Association (SLASA).
From day one, the swimmers were all psyched up and ready for the competition. Seven OECS records were broken on the first day of the meet.
Grenada swam against a twenty-two member Antigua team, a fourteen member Martinique team and the St Lucia National Team. From the first night of the meet the Grenadians held an early points lead, and with determination were able to increase that lead as the championship progressed.
In an interview with Caribbean Net News, Terrel Bruno, Assistant Coach of Team Antigua, indicated that with a contingent of 22 swimmers, he is expecting his team to improve on their time and he thinks they will have a great experience knowing what it is like to compete outside of Antigua. Jamie Peterkin, Captain of Team St Lucia, in an exclusive interview with this reporter said that he had high praises for his team and was very impressed with the manner in which his team handled the sprint events, but he emphasized the need for more urgency, confidence and aggression in the middle distant events.
After three days of intense and exciting competition, Grenada emerged winner of the Championship with a total of 2077.5 points, while St Lucia came in second with 1769.5 points and Antigua placed third with 379 points.
Leading the St Lucia challenge were age group winners Runako Daniel, who won the Age Group trophy in the Boys 11 -12 with 99 points; Siona Huxley won the Girls 13 - 14 Age Group with 90 points Thalia Bergasse won the girls 9 -10 with 70 points while up and coming star Jyasi Daniel was a co-winner with 48 points in the category 8 and Under Boys.
Age group winners were -
8 & Under Boys Jyasi Daniel St Lucia
9 - 10 Boys Corie Olivierre Grenada
11 - 12 Boys Runako Daniel St Lucia
13 - 14 Boys Nicholas Coard Grenada
15 - 17 Boys Esau Simpson Grenada
18 & Over Martin Renwick Grenada
8 & Under Girls Gabrielle Paparo Grenada
9 - 10 girls Thalia Bergasse St Lucia
11 - 12 girls Chinwe Oluonwe Grenada
13 - 14 girls Siona Huxley St Lucia
15 - 17 girls Sophia Noel Grenada
18 & Over Girls Alexandra Williams Grenada
Equally impressive for the meet were the 33 new OECS Records set by the swimmers with 9 set by St Lucia and 24 by the Grenadians. The OECS records set by the St Lucians were:
- Siona Huxley in the 50M Fly(31.75) 50M Back (32.40) 100M Back (1:11.32),
- Thalia Bergasse in the 400M Free (5:58.34), 50M Back (35.59)
- Runako Daniel in the 50M Fly (30.61) 50 M Free (27.98)
- Jean Luc Augier 100M Fly (1:01.20) and
- the boys Medley Relay 11-14 with a time of 2:04.05
Grenada has now won the Championships for the third consecutive year and will enjoy home advantage with the 2009 meet scheduled to be hosted in Grenada. Sources have also indicated they will within the next few weeks break ground on their new 50M pool near the International airport which will further develop their swim program. |
