Keisha Hill, Staff Reporter

The Jamaican swimmers at the XXIV Carifta Swimming Championships, currently under way in Aruba, are well poised to repeat their outstanding performance of last year, ending the first day of the competition with 11 medals, capturing two gold, three silver and six bronze.

Jamaica amassed 156 points on day one and are currently in third place behind leaders Trinidad and Tobago (213) and Bahamas (179). Guadeloupe (142) and Martinique (131) complete the top five.

The first gold medal came from Danielle Boothe, when she swam 2:49.73 to erase the previous games record of 2:52.69, setting a new Carifta and national age group record in the 11-12 girls 200m breaststroke.

new games record

Timothy Wynter also mined gold and set a new games record in the 11-12 boys 50m backstroke in a time of 30.37, this against the previous record of 31.16. Wynter's second medal, a bronze, came in the 11-12 boys 100m butterfly in a time of 1:06.63.

Breanna Roman earned silver in the 13-14 girls 200m breaststroke just ahead of her teammate Octivia Gray, who took the bronze, in 2:57.33 and 2:57.53, respectively. The Jamaicans had another second and third-place finish when Kendese Nangle nipped teammate Alexia Royal-Eatmon in the 13-14 girls 50m backstroke.

Dominic Walter won the other individual medal, taking the bronze in the 15-17 boys 1500m freestyle in 16:48.48. In the 4x100m freestyle relays, Jamaica won silver in the 13-14 girls in 4:15.13 and both the 11-12 boys and girls teams earned bronze in times of 4:14.55 and 4:26.93.

Entering day two of the preliminaries, Danielle Boothe, who broke both the Carifta and national age group record in the 200m breaststroke, was in top form when she again broke both the Carifta and national age group record in the 11-12 girls 50m butterfly with a time of 30.21, shaving off 0.29 hundredth of a second off the games record of 30.50.

qualifier

She also qualified for the 400m individual medley. Timothy Wynter, who had also broken the Carifta and national age group record in the 11-12 boys 50m backstroke and took bronze in the 100m butterfly yesterday, won the 11-12 boys 100m backstroke preliminaries in a time of 1:08.58, just missing the 14-year games record of 1:07.00, as well as qualifying for the 50m butterfly.

The other swimmers through to yesterday evening's finals are Stefani Webley (11-12), Antoine Young and Sidrell Williams (11-12 boys), Brittany Kenny, Alexia Royal-Eatmon and Kendese Nangle (13-14 girls), Dominique Dawson, Lauren Williams (15-17 girls) and Dominic Walter, Ramon Walton (15-17 boys)

The Jamaicans will also contest the 4x100m medley relays.