Suriname comprehensively won the 2009 Inter Guiana Games overall swimming title while Guyana and French Guiana tied for second place as the championships culminated at the Castellani Pool in Georgetown yesterday.
The Dutch–speaking country accumulated an astonishing 283 points to win both the male and female championships while Guyana and French Guiana both ended on 141 points. However, the home side settled for second in the male swimming title with 74 points edging their French counterparts by one point (73).
But the French took second in the women’s title scoring 68 points and returning the favour by scraping past Guyana by one point (67).
After grabbing 21 medals (11 gold, 8 silver and 2 bronze) on the opening day, the Surinamese almost matched that performance on the second day as they snatched 22 medals (11 gold, 9 silver and 2 bronze).
Guyana who had ten medals (1 gold, 1 silver and 8 bronze) on the first day, only managed to win six medals (1 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze) while the French grabbed eight medals (2 silver and 6 bronze) as compared to the five medals (3 silver and 2 bronze) that they won on day one.
Niall Roberts who has been in the spotlight of Guyana’s swimming arena after competing in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, did manage to lift his country’s lone gold on the second and final day of the championship.
Niall coasted to victory in the boys’ 100-metre freestyle race, finishing with a time of 54.36s, while Suriname’s top swimmer Marcelino Richaards closely followed for second (54.67s) while another Surinamese Sumeet Rambali (58.23s) was third.
Both Roberts and Richaards broke the IGG territorial record of 54.70s in the event which was set in 2006 at the Castellani Pool by Ruud Toekaja of Suriname.
In an invited comment, Roberts who also claimed Guyana’s lone gold medal on the opening day said that he was happy with his performance at the IGG event since he is still recovering from the rigours of competing at the CARFITA swim meet which was recently held in Aruba.
He said that being Guyana’s recent Olympian in swimming, a lot is usually expected of him and as such he tries to give 100% every time he enters the pool.
Debutant Aureyah Payne was the only other swimmer to capture an individual medal for Guyana when she managed to finish third in the girls 50-metres backstroke race with a time of (36.96s) and also bettering her entry time of 37.13s. That race was won by Suriname’s Xaenne Tjoen A Choy (34.20s) with Dewi Darmohoetomo (34.24s) second.
Guyana’s coach Christopher Mc Adam said that his team’s performance at the games as a whole was unexpectedly heartening. He said not that he was underrating his swimmers, but given the level of competition that was coming from French Guiana and Suriname, his swimmers held their own.
In essence he said it was excellent and congratulated his team for a job well done even though they did not win the gold. He went on to state that what made it even more heartening was that a lot of his swimmers were newcomers to this type of competition and some were quite young as well.
Rick Hoarloo, coach of the victorious Suriname squad said that his swimmers are still getting over the CARIFA Games as well, and he was pleased with their performance. He says the IGG event is one that is very important for his country and as such they try to bring their best swimmers to compete.
He further stated that after losing to French Guiana at home last year, his athletes were able to use that as motivation for coming out and winning the title this year from then.
And so they did in emphatic fashion; listed below is the final overall medal and points standing at the completion of the 2009 IGG swimming Championships yesterday.
Country Gold Silver Bronze Total Medals
1. Suriname 22 17 4 43
2. French Guiana – 5 8 13
3. Guyana 2 2 12 16
Country Male Female Total Points
1 Suriname 135 148 283
2 French Guiana 73 68 141
2 Guyana 74 67 141