Four swimmers from St Vincent’s and the Grenadines Black Sand Swim Squad competed in the 26th Annual Invitational Swim Meet in Barbados from 19th- 21st May, bringing home a flurry of medals and breaking national records.
Competing in the 8 years and under category was 6 year old Eltonique Leonard, who swam personal best times in all of her events and managed to swim herself to 6th position in the 50m backstroke against 34 other strong competitors.
Kenale’ Alleyne put in some strong swims in the male 11 – 12 years age category, also gaining personal best times.
It was in the boys 9 -10 years age category where Black Sands training partners Eltonte’ Leonard and Jayson Sandy dominated every race they swam. Swimming personal times in every race, Leonard won himself four gold and two silver medals, whilst doing so broke the St Vincent national records in the 100m, 200m & 400 meter freestyle. Sandy was able to swim himself to two gold and two silver medals and he also smashed the St. Vincent national records in the 50 meter breaststroke and freestyle. After three days of tough competition it was Leonard who came out on top and was awarded the overall champions trophy for their age group.
Black Sands coach Kyle Dougan commented that he was extremely proud of the results of the Black Sands swimmers competing in Barbados and was overjoyed that the four swimmers were able to score enough points to get Black Sands Swim Squad to seventh position overall, out of the nineteen clubs that were competing.