The Tribune

SWIFT swimming is becoming a regular name at the Plantation Winter Swimming Championships as it continues to make its presence known.

This year the team won eight medals - five gold, one silver and two bronze - to score a total of 325.50 points and lead all other Caribbean teams.

The team was led by Joanna Evans who won four individual golds in the 200m, 500m, 1000m, and 1650m freestyle events.

Victoria Rusell took a gold in the 50m breast and a bronze in the 100m breast, Devante Carey took a silver in the 100m breast and Alec Sands took a bronze in the 1650m freestyle.

Their times were as follows: Joanna -200m free -1:52.98s, 500m free – 4:50.60s, 1,000m free – 10:04.63s, 1650m free – 17:17.49s, Victoria – 50m breast -31.79s, 100m breast – 1:11.09s, Devante – 100m breast – 1:16.33s, and Alec – 1650m free – 17.21.44s.

81 per cent of the team made individual finals and 93 per cent of the team scored points in the finals, including relays.

Along with the medallists, Arielle Adderley placed 7th in the 50m back, Devante Carey also finished 4th in the 50m breast in 35.46m, 6th in 50m fly in 30.47s, 9th in the 100m IM in 1:12s, and 9th in the 200m IM in 2:38.20s.

Jasmine Gibson finished 10th in the 50m fly final in 29.95s.

Darren Laing ended up 10th in 100m free in 57.64s and 10th in the 200m fly in 2:35.68s.

Liya Moncur, swimming in the nine-year-old age group, placed 5th in the 50 free in 31.56, 8th in the 100 free in 1:11.68s, 7th in the 200m free in 2:36.18s, 5th in the 50m fly in 36.61, and 6th in the 200m IM in 3:01.75s.

Peter Morley finished 4th in the 200m back in 2:18.68s, 6th in the 100m back in 1:06.83s, and 7th in the 50m back in 31.79s.

Joshua Roberts placed 4th in the 200 free in 1:55.14, 5th in the 200 IM in 2:14.32, 6th in the 100m back in 1:01.88s, 7th in the 100m free in 53.41s, and 8th in 50m back in 29.70s.

Victoria Russell placed 7th in the 50m free in 26.14s and 8th in the 50m fly in 28.60s.

Tyler Russell just missed out on several medals with a 4th place finish in the 50m breast in 30.87s, 4th in the 100m breast in 1:06.57s, 4th in the 200m breast in 2:25.40s and 4th in the 400m IM in 4:49.57s. Tyler also finished 6th in the 200m IM in 2:15.36s.

Alec Sands placed 5th in the 1,000m free in 10:34.36s.

Maya Thompson, along with swimming strong legs on the relays, placed 8th in the 100m free in 57.41s.

Michael Walkine made it into the final in the 50m breast, taking 10th place in 33.19s.

“The meet is a good opportunity to fellowship with old time coaching friends such as Kirk Peppers from Metro Aquatics who was a teammate with Andy Knowles at the University of Miami in the 1970s. It was satisfying to see Andy and Kirk standing next to each other, cheering for their swimmers in the mile race (1650 free), which was won by Joanna Evans with Arianna Noya of Metro Aquatics second,” said a press release.