Swimming Coach On Day #1 Of Carifta Games

National Swim Coach Ben Smith spoke about the first day of competition of the 2013 Carifta Swimming Championships in Jamaica, a day which saw Bermuda win two medals.

Coach Smith said, “On Saturday March 30th [the first session of swimming] at the National Sports complex pool in Kingston Jamaica we had 20 individual swims and the 11 and 12 girls relay. We were hoping for PB’s and to have as many finals as possible.

“First up was the distance events and we had Shannon Hassell and Vanessa Esposito competing in the 800 free. Shannon lowered her PB by 6 seconds and finished 7th while Vanessa was a little off her PB and finished 9th. Vaughn Rowse had a good 1500 swim but was unable to lower his PB.

“In the 200 breaststroke we had Ashley Irby lower her time by 4 seconds as she finished in 19th while Megan Lau lowered her time by 6 seconds moving her to 16th. Ethan Daley took his shot at the breaststroke with a 6 second PB. Vanessa Esposito finished 14th in her 200 breast.

“50 back saw us get our first finalist with Maddie Moore setting an age group record of 33.05 while qualifying 2nd for the finals. Emma finished 17th with her second PB of the day. Alex Pilgrim dropped a second in his 50 to get 18th while Evan lowered his time to come 24th.

“Shannon Hassell had her first taste of the 13-14 backstroke and finished 11th. Jesse Washington also was welcomed to the new age group as he finished 9th. Dejan was a little off in his back and came in 16th.

“Butterfly was our last individual event for the morning and we had some really good swims. Emma Harvey took 3 seconds off her very fast PB to swim 1:13.36 which took the 2007 record of Ashley Yearwood. Josh Irvine and Alex Pilgrim both had good swims in their 100 flys them finishing 17th and 19th.

“Alex McCallum had his first Carifta swim and he had a strong 1:08. Jesse Washington made up for his 50 back with a strong 100 fly with a record time of 1:02.93 which has him 6th in the finals.

“We finished the morning with the 11-12 girls relay setting a new record and placing 5th for tonight’s finals. With 3 individual finals, 1 relay final and 4 records it was a very strong morning for the team. ”

“Maddie Moore was first up in the 50 backstroke. It was a long wait before her event as the facility suffered from several power outages before we could get on track. Once Maddie was up on the blocks she was ready to go. From start to finish she had the lead and grabbed her first gold medal while lowering her record time from the morning.

“Next was Emma Harvey in her 100 fly. As one of the youngest competitors in the meet she knew she had her work cut out for her. She raced to an early lead and was third to the wall.

“The strength of her competitors was a little too much on the second lap but she finished in a good 5th position. It will be exciting to see her throughout this meet as we can see what she is capable of in the future.

“Jesse Washington has found that the 13-14 age group is a significant jump up in speed. His 100 fly was an amazing race and with 10 meters out he was in 5th place but he wanted a medal. While lowering his record from the morning to 1:01.17 his 3rd place finish got him the bronze.

“We finished the night of with the 2 relay teams. The girls lowered their record from the morning by a second and finished 5th overall. The boys relay had a strong swim and finished 7th,” Coach Smith concluded.

During the second day of competition on Sunday, Madelyn Moore won her second medal of the Games, placing second in the 100m backstroke in a time of 1:14.10. You can view all our coverage of the Carifta Games here.

#CARIFTAGames #Swimming

Category: All, Sports