The Titans Aquatic International swim meet was held at the Barbados Aquatic Centre, October 2013, with 10 Black Sands Swim Squad swimmers competed at the event, which hosted many other highly competitive swimmers from throughout the region. Black Sands swimmers brought back 22 medals at the end of the three day, highly competitive event, with youngster Alex Joachim leading the way by winning 11 of the 22 medals.
Joachim swam himself to top spot winning gold in the boys 11 – 12 years 100 meters backstroke in 1 minute 11.18 seconds, smashing his personal best time.
He went on to swim amazingly well in his other events by winning five silver and five bronze medals and in doing so achieved many other personal best times.
Younger sister Jamie Joachim joined her brother on the medal podium, proudly winning 1 silver and 1 bronze ans also achieving personal best times.
Shane Cadogan brought home six medals to SVG. Shane Cadogan won gold in 50 metre freestyle in a time of 26.14 seconds and went on to swim himself an additional 2 silver and 3 bronze medals.
Tia Gun-Munro and Mya Defreitas battled hard in the girls 9-10 years ago group, winning 1 bronze medal in the 50 breaststroke and Mya winning 2 bronze medals, 1 in 50 metre butterfly and 1 in 200 metre freestyle. Both girls medalled with personal best times as well as achieving personal best in other events.
Paige Cadogan, Alex Cyrus, Cruz Halbich, Kyle John and Aaron Defreitas also competed as part of the Black Sands Swim Squad and were competitive in all of the events, in which they participated.
The Black Sands Swim Squad proved highly competitive swimming throughout the competition as well as conducting themselves in a professional manner.
Coach Kyle Dougan commented on how proud he was of the performance given by squad and was pleased to see that continued training and dedication to the sport was paying dividends with so many podium finishes and personal best times. He also commented on the significance of Alex Joachim’s swimming times, stating that Alex’s times places him in the top 5.7 percent of the boys 12-year-old age group within the whole of the United States of America.
A Great indication of the high standard of swimming coming out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.