Day Four Of CARIFTA Swimming Championships
Day four of the CARIFTA Swimming Championships in Aruba saw preliminary heats takes place this morning [Apr 25], with several members of the Bermuda team positioning themselves for a showing in the finals.
A spokesperson said, “On the final day of competition at the pool, it would be easy to lie back after the results of the first three days, but this team wants more.
“The 400 free was the first event, with some swimmers going straight to finals because they were the top eight swimmers in the event. Jude Moseley and Alex Pilgrim were in the same heat this morning and both had very good swims; Alex dropped five seconds from his PB and Jude dropped nine seconds from his. They finished second and third, but will be challenged by the swimmers in tonight’s finals.
“Alyssa Paynter dropped two seconds from her PB in the 400 free, while Ashley Irby will be swimming in tonight’s final. Both Jesse Washington and Shannon Hassell will be in tonight’s finals for the 400 free. Philip finished the morning 400 free events with a two second drop that put him in second place, but he will have to wait for the finals to see where he will place overall.
“Next up was the 50 free, and we had both Emma Harvey and Ashley Irby in the same heat, where they placed first and second. Following the last heat of the 50 free, they are seeded in third and fourth position for tonight’s final.
“Alex Pilgrim went under 30 for the first time and finished in 16th place, while Ethan Daley made it to tonight’s finals in seventh place by going under 29 seconds for the first time. Maddy Moore was up next in the 13 and 14 50 free, and she put in an amazing performance; her time of 26:81 crushed the Carifta record of 27.45, broke the Bermuda National record held by Kiera Aitken, and placed her as the top seed for tonight.”
Bermuda’s team during the Opening Ceremony; photo courtesy of CARIFTA organisers
“Her time also made her the fastest 50 freestyler in the female 15-17 age group, qualifying her for the Youth Olympic Games, even though she is too young to attend, and also qualified her for CAC games. Tonight she will try to convert the fast morning time to a gold medal result in finals.
“Jesse Washington swam the 50 freestyles but his slow start almost cost him a final. He battled back to fifth position and will look to get a faster start tonight. Philip Hagen finished off the 50 freestyles with a personal best time of 26.36.
Izzy Dutranoit started off the 100 breast stroke for us where she lowered her PB by two seconds. Jude Moseley and Ethan Daley were next, but were both disqualified during their event. Philip Hagen finished off his meet with a strong 75 meters of breaststroke, but in the last 25 meters the fatigue created with such a packed schedule saw him fade at the end.
“The last event for the morning was the 200 backstroke. Izzy swam her last individual event by lowering her PB by 35 seconds. Emma Harvey made it look easy as she qualified fourth for the final. Brett Smith had a strong race, but fatigued at the end, and Nick Brando finished in the ninth place, narrowly missing the finals.
“The last swims of the morning were from Maddy Moore and Shannon Hassell. They both had smooth swims to get to the finals. Maddy will be seeded fourth for tonight, while Shannon will be seeded second overall.
“We have 11 individual events and two relays to race tonight as the meet concludes. We are hoping to finish this very strong meet with some big swims tonight.”
