The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Aquatics Federation’s Last Chance Meet saw a new national record lowered by collegian Izaak Bastian, while several CCCAN and CARIFTA qualifying standards were met by various swimmers.

The two-day meet, held over the weekend at the Betty Kelly Kenning Swim Complex, allowed swimmers to attain the standards for the meets, although they have been pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Home on spring break after he helped the Florida State Seminoles to an impressive undefeated season so far this year, Bastian picked up where he left off at the 2021 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he set school records in the 50, 100 and 200 yards breaststrokes.

On day one of the BAF’s Last chance Meet on Friday night, Bastian lowered his Bahamas 200 metres breaststroke national record from two minutes and 17.78 seconds that he set at the CARIFTA Games in Kingston, Jamaica on March 31, 2018 to 2:16.07 with his victory. It was a Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) performer, surpassing the qualifying mark of 2:25.09 and it came just before he added the CCCAN qualifier in the 100m breaststroke on Saturday when he clocked 1:01.92 to dip under the standard of 1:06.39.

Representing the Barracudas Swim Club, Bastian said it was good to come home and race in front of the local spectators, many of whom had to view outside the stadium or online because they were not allowed inside as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.

“I haven’t swum in a long course race in a long time, so I didn’t know how it would go,” said Bastian of the record-breaking feat.

“It went a lot better for the 200m, but it wasn’t a bad 200m either. “It’s not where I want it to be, but I now know what I have to work on moving forward.”

For good measure, Bastian also dropped down to the 50m freestyle where he finished in front in 23.41 to add to his CCCAN qualifier, surpassing that standard of 23.86.

In the 100m breaststroke, Nigel Forbes of the Waves followed Bastian at the wall in 1:09.39 to surpass the boys’ 15-17 CARIFTA standard of 1:11.27. Forbes had a couple of outstanding performances in other events, including the 100m butterfly in which he clocked 57.76 to surpass the CCCAN mark of 57.85 and Carifta of 1:00.26.

The same feat was achieved in the 50m breaststroke as Forbes’ winning time of 31.21 surpassed the CCCN standard of 31.32 and Carifta of 32.09.

Forbes also won the 200m individual medley (IM) in 2:14.68 to surpass the CCCAN standard of 2:16.29 and Carifta of 2:20.77.

And in the 100m breaststroke, his winning time of 1:09.39 bettered the CCCAN standard of 1:09.27 and Carifta of 1:11.20.

In the 200m breaststroke, Earl Thompson III from Mako did the boys’ 15-17 Carifta Games qualifying standard of 2:26.35 when he trailed Bastian to win his segment in 2:11.15.

Thompson III also did the Carifta standard of 5:08.35 by clocking 5:04.64 in the 15-17 400m IM.

Marvin Johnson, also of the Wave, surpassed the CCCAN qualifying mark of 31.06 with Forbes’ victory in the 13-14 boys’ 50m backstroke in 28.95 and was joined by Mako’s Amauri Bonamy (30.64) and Zion Gibson (31.31) as they all went under the Carifta standard of 31.32.

Johnson concluded the meet with at least four other qualifying performance.

He attained the CCCAN (57.85) and Carifta (1:00.26) standards when he won the boys 13-14 100m butterfly in 54.76.

In the 50m butterfly, Johnson did the CCCAN (27.60) and was joined by team-mate Asher Johnson in the Carifta (28.51) mark with respective times of 27.17 and 27.82.

And in the 100m butterfly, Johnson did the CCCAN standard of 1:01.76 with his winning time of 1:00.57, which surpassed the Carifta standard of 1:04.76 along with Barracuda’s Matthias Simms (1:03.37); Asher Johnson (1:03.52) and Mako’s Tristin Ferguson (1:03.91).

Johnson also duplicated the double heat in the 100m backstroke in his time of 1:04.07 to surpass the CCCAN mark of 1:05.27 and Caffita of 1:0.28, the latter which was also achieved by Bonamy in 1:07.87 for second and team-mate Zion Gibson in 1:08.80 for third.

In the 100m freestyle, Johnson clocked 53.86 to dip under the CCCAN time of 56.01 and Carifta of 57.78, while Tristin Ferguson also surpassed the Carifta standard with 56.83 for second.

And Johnson added the CCCAN standard of 2:24.86 to his ledger with his winning time of 2:23.35, which also surpassed the Carifta standard of 2:47.67.

Other qualifying performances from the boys, included Wave’s Tristen Hepburn in the 11-12 boys’ 200m breaststroke in 2:47.67 to surpass both the CCCAN mark of 2:59.10 and the Carifta standard of 2:05.01.

Hepburn also did it in the 100m butterfly in 1:09.31 to surpass the CCCAN (1:06.69) and Carifta (1:11.66) standards and he did the same in the 200m butterfly in 2:44.66 to surpass the CCCAN (2:35.93) and Carifta (2:56.48) standards.

In the 400m IM, Hepburn also did 5:35.50 to surpass the CCCAN time of 5:56.54 and was joined in going under the Carifta (6:59.26) by Barracuda’s Will Farrington in 5:56.63.

Hepburn also achieved the Carifta standards of 2:33.21) in the 200m IM with his time of 2:35.99 and the 100m breaststroke time of 1:24.55 with his time of 1:19.19.

Ayrton Moncur of Mako in the 13-14 boys’ 200m breaststroke in 2:41.96 and Caden Wells, unattached, in 2:42.82 as they both surpassed the Carifta standard of 2:48.59.

In reverse order, Wells surpassed the CCCAN (32.30) and Carifta (33.98) by winning the 50m breaststroke in 33.16 with Moncur also doing the Carifta standard in 33.63.

Mako’s Anish Roy (32.30) and Donald Saunders (32.31) to surpass both the CCCAN (30.06) and Carifta (31.32) standards. But Saunders won the 100m backstroke in 1:09.58 for the CCCAN (1:11.31) and Carifta (1:17.04), while Roy got the Carifta mark in 1:13.12.

Saunders also won the 50m freestyle in 26.82 to sip under the CCACN (27.92) and Carifta (28.59) as he was followed by Roy in 28.32 for the Carifta qualifier.

The pair also battled it out in the 100m freestyle with Saunders’ winning time of 59.65 surpassing the CCCAN (1:01.40) and Carifta (1:03.71) as Roy went under the Carifta mark in 1:03.03 or second.

Roy picked up another Carifta qualifier in the 200m backstroke in his time of 2:45.80. The standard set was 2:32.86.

On the girls’ side, Keianna Moss had one of the most impressive showing, winning the 15-17 100m butterfly in 1:08.18 to surpass the Carifta standard of 1:10.31 and the 50m butterfly in 30.70 to surpass the Carifta standard of 30.57.

Moss, however, clocked 1:01.86 for second to champion Delaney Mizell from Lyford Cay in 1:01.71 as they both dipped under the Carifta standard of 1:02.37 in the 100m freestyle.

And Moss closed out her meet by taking the 200m backstroke in 2:37.08 to surpass the Carifta qualifying time of 2:44.28.

“I swum really good. I dropped times in most of my events,” she said Moss, a 15-year-old student of Focus Point Academy Home School. “With Carifta postponed to a later date, I have more time to train, so I’m happy with that.

“I’m happy with the fact that I’m right on my best times or better my best times and my coach said I’m doing pretty good, so I feel very good about it.”

Moss, primarily known as a backstroker, said she’s looking to continue to drop her times and get faster as she push herself to the limit and the competition she is getting her some of her competitors.

In the 13-14 girls’ 50m butterfly, Barracuda’s Rhanishka Gibbs (30.70) and Wave’s Seannia Norville-Smith (31.41) to surpass the Carifta standard of 31.44.

Gibbs also won the 50m breaststroke in 35.53 to surpass the CCCAN (35.53) and Carifta (38.35) standards. Tia-Isabella Adderley got second in 38.35 to surpass the Carifta time.

Gibbs added another qualifier in the 50m freestyle in 28.52 to surpass the Carifta standard of 28.76.

Alpha’s Leylah Knowles won the 13-14 girls’ 50m backstroke in 33.06 and Barracuda’s Kyana Higgs did 33.47 as they both did the Carifta standard of 33.60.

Knowles also did the Carifta standard of 1:14.78 with her win in 1:12.40 with Barracuda’s Kyana Higgs following her in 1:12.94 to dip under the standard as well.

And Knowles got a third Carifta qualifier in the 200m backstroke in 2:37.08 to surpass the standard of 2:41.55.

Higgs, on the other hand, got another qualifier in the 13-14 girls’ 200m IM in 2:38.25 to surpass the Carifta standard of 2:41.04.

Zaylie-Elizabeth Thompson of Alpha did 9:45.71 in the 800m freestyle to surpass the 15-17 girls’ standard of 9:32.81 and the 100m breaststroke in 1:19.48 to surpass the Carifta standard of 1:24.24, followed by Lyford Cay’s Delaney Mizell in 1:23.45.

Wave’s Zizou Salting did 3:08.69 for the Carifta standard of 3:12.19 in the 11-12 girls’ 200m breaststroke; Mako’s Tia-Isabella Adderley did 3:01.91 in the 13-14 girls’ 200m breaststroke to surpass the Carifta standard of 3:05.60.

Wave’s Zoe Williamson did 1:11.06 to surpass the CCCAN (1:12.32) and Carifta (1:15.88) times in the 11-12 girls’ 100m butterfly and the 100m freestyle in 1:04.51 to surpass the Carifta standard of 1:06.84.

Williamson also did the Carifta standard of 3:07,04 with her win in the 200m butterfly in 2:51.64 with her Wave team-mate Zizou Salting taking second in 2:53.14.

Federation president Algernon Cargill said while they were delighted with watching Bastian as he returned home to compete, the meet, which was originally set as their Last Chance for swimmers to qualify or Carifta, they had some outstanding swims overall.

“The time out of the water has held the swimmers and they are just getting back into heavy training now,” he said. “So with Carifta being postponed, we can spend a lot more time preparing to defend our title

“In the event that Carifta is not held, the CCCAN Championships will be held in June in San Juan, Puerto Rico, so our swimmers will get a chance to swim in a major international meet sometime this summer.”

On Saturday, Bahamas Aquatics will stage their open water race on Long Wharf Beach starting at 7 am as they select the competitors for both the Carifta and CCCAN competition for both the 5 and 10 kilometer races.