After capturing Guyana’s first ever medal at the Carifta Swimming Championships when she secured gold in the 200m breaststroke last Thursday, Jessica Stephenson increased her country’s medal count to two when she gained a bronze medal in the girls’ 11-12 100m breaststroke.
After barely missing the podium on Saturday by finishing fourth in the finals of the girls’ 50m breaststroke, the Trinidad-based swimmer convincingly swam into the final with a second-placed finish in her heat.
In this her fourth final of the four events in which she competed, Stephenson clocked a time of 1:23.55s which was beaten only by first-placed finisher Evita Letter of Suriname (1:21.59s) and second-placed finisher Octivia Gray of Jamaica (1:21.84s).
Ronaldo Rodrigues who also placed fourth in the 50m breaststroke on Saturday, was edged out of another fourth-placed finish as Trinidadians Joshua Changar (1:21.65s) and Blaine Sobrian (1:21.91) finished just ahead of Rodrigues (1:21.97s) who had to settle for sixth in his third appearance in a final at these championships.
In the race preceding Stephenson’s bronze and Rodrigues’s sixth-placed finish, Niall Roberts swam a time of 25.37s to place seventh in the boys’ 15-17 50m freestyle.
After four days of competition three of the Guyanese swimmers were able to advance to the finals in some of their events to place 13th overall in the points standings of the championships, having amassed 34 points in the 22 events that they competed in.
Antilles Guyane Francaise emerged overall champion having captured 91 medals, consisting of 29 gold, 38 silver and 24 bronze medals to give their team 1,107 points.
Finishing in second place was Trinidad and Tobago with 801 points from 61 medals (24 gold, 15 silver and 22 bronze) while Bahamas finished closely behind in third position with 721 points from 50 medals (22 gold, 18 silver and 10 bronze).
The Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) congratulated Stephenson for capturing yet another medal for herself and her country, as well as all the swimmers who competed to the best of their ability in representing Guyana.
GASA also said that it is extremely proud of all its swimmers and could only imagine the remarkable results that would have been produced if they had had access to half the training time of their competitors.
