DILLON GOODING MAKES HISTORY
Dillon Gooding made St Vincent history books by being the first swimmer from SVG to qualify for the semi finals at the recently held 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia.
Gooding was competing in the men’s 50 meter Backstroke. Prior to the race he had mentioned to his Coach, Kyle Dougan, that he felt he stood a good chance of making it through to the semi finals!!
The prelims took place on 6th April 2018 at 11am. The hot mid day sun was causing a lot of swimmers problems due to the blinding glare, but Gooding didn’t let this hold him back and swam an impressive 29.96 seconds, placing fifth in his heat.
Team mates Cruz Halbich, Alexander Cyrus and Nikolas Sylvester, along with Coach Dougan waited anxiously to see the final results on the score board.
Position 16 – SVG – GOODING Dillon – Q (qualified) – 29.96
Cyrus, Halbich, Sylvester and Dougan erupted with joy as they viewed a huge scoreboard in front of a stadium at full capacity with 100,000 spectators. It showed Dillon Gooding qualifying in 16th position for the semi finals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, making history for swimming in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Gooding accepted their congratulations, then went straight into focusing on his semi final swim that would take place at 7pm that same evening. 29.74 seconds, holding his 16th position was the result of the semi final swim for Gooding. A personal best time and an experience that Dillon will remember for a lifetime.
Gooding said “this is one of the proudest moments I have felt in my life so far. Hearing mine and my country’s name announced in front of a live audience of 100,000 spectators was an amazing feeling”.
Unable to make semi’s, but swimming personal bests in their races were team mates Cruz Halbich, Alexander Cyrus and Nikolas Sylvester. Halbich held his own in the 200 meter freestyle with a time of 2 minutes 9 seconds, whilst Cyrus and Sylvester went head to head in the 50 meter freestyle. Cyrus 25.57 seconds and Sylvester 25.44 seconds.
Coach Dougan commented that the four boys swam exceptionally well for their country and Vincentians should be proud of them. Dougan mentioned that he had received a message of congratulations from the leading sports reporter of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) Mr Nick Hope, who has been following the progress of swimming in St Vincent and the Grenadines since 2011.
(BBC’s Nick Hope interviewing Storm Halbich from Team SVG back in 2011)
He also said that the team were recognized by many TV presenters who commented on their fun behavior around the pool, attempting to get the SVG flag seen on TV as many times as possible.
(Sylvester and Cyrus captured on TV flag waving during a presentation march pass)