St Vincent and the Grenadines was well represented at the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships held in Budapest, Hungary from August 20th to 25th, 2019. This competition features the best swimmers from across the world between the ages of 15 and 18 for boys and age 14 to 17 for girls.
Aaron Defreitas, 17 years old, and Alex Joachim (age 16) swam representing SVG. Both young men recorded several personal best times as they continue to improve.
Aaron Defreitas swam in the following events:
- 100 meter Butterfly – completed in a time of 1 minutes, 8.62 seconds
- 50 meter Freestyle – 25.21 seconds which was personal best time
- 50 meter Butterfly – 28.13 seconds which was a personal best time
- 100 meter Freestyle – 56.94 seconds which was also a personal best time.
Alexander Joachim recorded all personal best times for his events and his results were as follows:
- 100 meter Butterfly – time of 58.85 seconds. This time broke SVG’s record for both boys age 15 to 16 and our National Open record.
- 50 meter Backstroke – 29.03 seconds which broke the SVG record for boys 15 to 16.
- 50 meter Freestyle – 24.60 seconds which broke SVG’s record for both boys age 15 to 16 and our National Open record.
- 50 meter Butterfly – 26.42 seconds which broke the SVG record for boys 15 to 16.
- 200 meter Breaststroke – 2 minutes, 31.15 seconds which broke SVG’s record for both boys age 15 to 16 and our National Open record.
- 100 meter Freestyle – 54.29 seconds which broke SVG’s record for both boys age 15 to 16 and our National Open record.
- 50 meter Breaststroke – 31.35 seconds which was a personal best time.
- 200 meter Butterfly – 2 minutes 17.11 seconds which broke SVG’s record for both boys age 15 to 16 and our National Open record.
The SVG Swimming Federation congratulates Alex on meeting the Carifta qualifying times for 6 different events. The Carifta Swimming Championships will be held in Barbados in April 2020. The SVG Swimming Federation is proud and pleased with the outstanding performances and effort of its young athletes. We continue to see improving performances and we have seen a fine group of young swimmers being developed.
We thank our partners and sponsors including the National Lottery, the National Sports Council, the National Olympic Committee, FLOW, CGM Gallagher Insurance Broker and our international governing body, FINA.