Olympic swimmer Niall Roberts, Noelle Smith and Britany van Lange continued their dominance yesterday at the Mashramani Swim Meet at the Castellani Pool.
On the second day of the three-day meet, 18-year-old Roberts of the Dorado club smashed the national record of 27.71 seconds once held by Jamaal Sobers to set a new mark of 26.72 seconds in the 50m butterfly event. He beat Fabian Binns of Orca into second with a time of 28.13s and Ewin Enmore also of Dorado in third with 30.18s.
In the same vein, Roberts’ clubmate Smith recorded the Goodwill Games qualifying B standard time of 33.64 seconds in the 15-17 50m butterfly defeating Anna Layne of Orca, who made a time of 41.56s. Later in the afternoon the junior national swimmer returned to put up another Goodwill B timing of 41.06 in the 50m breaststroke with second place Steffi De Nobrega, of Dorado, also making the Goodwill B standard time with 41.92 seconds.
Van Lange also staked her claim for a place on the Goodwill Games team when she added another B standard time in the 100m freestyle with a time of 1:04.98; Jessica Stephenson also of Dorado registered a B standard time in second place with her time of 1:06.39. However, Stephenson turned the tables on van Lange in the 50m Breaststroke when she churned out a stunning performance to earn a Goodwill Games A qualifying time and a win with a blistering time of 36.54s.
Van Lange and Athena Gaskin, who got second and third, finished with B standard times of 40.89s and 41.54s respectively. On Friday van Lange won the 13-14 800m freestyle in record time (10:32.69), the 200m Individual Medley with the Goodwill B qualifying time of 2:49.18 and copped another win with a Goodwill B qualifying time of 34.26s in the 50m butterfly.
On a day when the females ruled the roost, Ronaldo Rodrigues of Silver Sharks earned himself the Carifesta Games A standard qualifying time and a new national record when he beat the 13-14 50m Breaststroke field with a time of 34.15s; David Sanmoogan was second with 40.46s and Travis Henry third with a time of 42.42s. Rodrigues eclipsed Linden Wickham’s three-year record of 34.89s.
Jaime Jabar of Dolphin continued the trend when he secured a B standard time for the Goodwill Games when he won the boys 15-17 50m Breaststroke in 33.86s. His team mate Kevon De Moura was second with 34.64s and Orca swimmer Sheik Amir, who had earlier won the 100m Freestyle (58.06s), finished third clocking 35.87s in the process.
