The St Vincent and the Grenadines Swimming Federation (SVGSF) in partnership with FLOW, CGM Gallagher, the National Lottery and the National Olympic Committee are pleased to provide this update on the results of SVG swimmers at the 2018 CARIFTA Swimming Championships held in Jamaica March 31st to April 3rd.
Alexander Joachim has become the first SVG swimmer to win Gold at the CARIFTA Swimming Championships. Alex had an impressive CARIFTA performance while swimming in the second year of the Boys age 13 to 14 category. Alex swam in 9 preliminary races over the four days. The preliminaries are swam in the morning sessions with the top eight swimmers progressing to the Finals which are swam in the evenings. Alex qualified to compete in the finals of 8 events. This was a tremendous display of strength, fitness and stamina and was the first time that a Vincentian swimmer had ever qualified to swim in this many finals. Not satisfied with just qualifying for the finals which in itself would have been a great accomplishment, Alex went on to win Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.
On the first day of CARIFTA and in his very first event: 200M Breaststroke; Alex qualified in second position during the morning session. In the finals on Saturday evening, Alex demolished his competition and won the race in a time of 2 minutes, 32.88 seconds while improving his personal best time by over 7 seconds. The sound of our national anthem being played at CARIFTA while Alex collected his Gold medal filled many of us with great pride. Alex narrowly lost the 100 meter Breaststroke race and collected his Silver medal in a personal best time of 1minute, 10.88 seconds. In the 200 meter Butterfly, Alex swam another personal best time of 2 minutes 20.2 seconds and won Bronze. In his other final races, Alex included 4th place, 5th place and 6th place finishes.
Team SVG at the CARIFTA swimming championships included Shné Joachim, Tristan Ballah, Jayson Sandy and Eltonté Leonard. Shné, at age 17, swam in her final year of CARIFTA eligibility. She placed 4th in the 50 meter Breaststroke and 5th in both the 50 meter Butterfly and the 100 meter Breaststroke events. Her historic streak of winning medals in five straight CARIFTA Games came to an end.
Shné has been one of SVG’s stellar athletes. She was SVG’s first ever CARIFTA swimming medallist. Over her CARIFTA career, she won a total of seven medals and broke 2 CARIFTA records. These are SVG records that will likely stand for a long time. Shné has broken records in events across the Caribbean and won medals in prestigious competitions in Canada. She has represented SVG swimming at the Commonwealth Games, at the Pan Am Games, the swimming World Championships and at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The SVG Swimming Federation expresses its gratitude to Shné for putting our sport on the SVG and Caribbean sporting map. We wish her continued success as she now moves to another level.
For three swimmers in the team, this was their first CARIFTA: Tristan Ballah, Jayson Sandy and Eltonte Leonard. Tristan Ballah swam in 5 races at CARIFTA and qualified for the finals where he placed 6th in the 50 meter Breaststroke finals while swimming in the second year of the boys age 11 to 12 category. Tristan now steps up to the challenging age 13 to 14 category.
Eltonte Leonard and Jayson Sandy both swam in the first year of the boys age 11 to 12 category. While they did not qualify for any finals, they performed credibly in their events. We look forward to seeing great things from these 2 young swimmers at next years CARIFTA Swimming Championships.
National Coach of the SVG Swimming Federation, Kyle Dougan, noted that “Alex’s performances are all the more remarkable given that the events he swam are some of the more difficult in swimming. He is an outstanding young man who demonstrates tremendous discipline and dedication. Special recognition to Alex’s sister, Shné , on a great CARIFTA career and I hope she continues in the sport. Shné is a very special talent. Her accomplishments have set the bar for all other Vincentian swimmers to try to reach. I wish the very best in her future”.
Please contact us at svgasa@gmail.com with any queries, comments or suggestions you may have in regard to swimming.