Black Sands Swim Squad (BSSS) swimmers have spent the last 6 weeks resetting some of St. Vincent’s national swimming records. With the support of the SVG Swimming Federation, BSSS hosted a time trials event for 6 consecutive weekends from 9th May – 13th June.
Complying with the recommended social distancing and event holding guidelines in relation to Covid-19, 34 swimmers participated in the time trials which resulted in a total of 14 national records being broken. Jamie Joachim, the youngest of the Joachim swimming family broke a total of 5 national records in the girls 11-12 age group and St. Vincent’s OECS record holder, Kevern DaSilva achieved 1 record in the same age group. Mya DeFreitas, St. Vincent’s selected female Olympian for 2020 produced a total of 4 record breaking swims in the girls 13-14 age group along with Abigail Deshong who smashed 2 records.
Back from his first year at Stanford University, Shane Cadogan managed to break 2 national records in the men’s open age group.
| NEW RECORD | PREVIOUS RECORD | |||||
| Gender | Age group | Event (meters) | Time | Name | Time | Name |
| Female | 11-12 | 100 Freestyle | 1:02.16 | Jamie Joachim | 1:03.23 | Jamie Joachim |
| Female | 11-12 | 100 Backstroke | 1:11.26 | Jamie Joachim | 1:13.47 | Kevern Dasilva |
| Female | 11-12 | 100 Butterfly | 1:09.77 | Jamie Joachim | 1:10.37 | Abigail Deshong |
| Female | 11-12 | 100 Individual medley | 1:11.31 | Jamie Joachim | 1:18.22 | Mya Defreitas |
| Female | 11-12 | 200 Individual medley | 2:36.51 | Jamie Joachim | 2:42.08 | Mya Defreitas |
| Female | 11-12 | 50 Backstroke | 32.22 | Kevern Dasilva | 33.08 | Kevern Dasilva |
| Female | 13-14 | 100 Freestyle | 1:01.46 | Mya Defreitas | 1:01.62 | Mya Defreitas |
| Female | 13-14 | 400 Freestyle | 4:35.48 | Mya Defreitas | 4:37.51 | Mya Defreitas |
| Female | 13-14 | 100 Butterfly | 1:07.65 | Mya Defreitas | 1:07.88 | Mya Defreitas |
| Female | 13-14 | 100 Individual medley | 1:11.07 | Mya Defreitas | 1:11.66 | Shne Joachim |
| Female | 13-14 | 50 Backstroke | 32.95 | Abigail Deshong | 33.15 | Shne Joachim |
| Female | 13-14 | 50 Butterfly | 29.63 | Abigail Deshong | 29.65 | Shne Joachim |
| Male | Open | 50 Freestyle | 23.74 | Shane Cadogan | 24.24 | Aaron Defreitas |
| Male | Open | 100 Individual medley | 1:00.44 | Shane Cadogan | 1:01.65 | Alex Joachim |
BSSS Head Coach Kyle Dougan was very satisfied with the results from ALL 34 swimmers that took part in the time trials. He said that the record-breaking swims produced some fantastic times which position some of our age group swimmers within the top 10 swimmers in places like the United Kingdom. He went on to thank all of the parent volunteers and the SVG Swimming Federation for their help in running the event.
SVG Swimming will be looking forward to its next competition, the SVG FLOW National Invitational Swimming Championships to be held from 10th – 16th August 2020.