Triple Carifta Games gold medallist Jessica Stephenson arrived at the new 50m pool at Pattenson an immediately made her present felt.
Stephenon’s performance yesterday was the highlight of the second day of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) annual Mashramani competition.
She became the first Guyanese swimmer to qualify for this year’s Carifta Games Swimming Championships by making the qualifying time for the 100m breaststroke event.
The Trinidad-based Stephenson attained the Carifta 2012 qualifying time in the Girls 15-17 100m breaststroke by clocking 1:18.46s.
While no records were broken yesterday afternoon, excitement was generated by the arrival of last year’s Carifta Games triple gold medallist.
There was also a close finish in the Boys 11-12 100m breaststroke event with Dylan Nurse clocking 1:47:76s to pip Danielk Scott who finished in 1:47:89s.
A number of swimmers achieved personal best times (PB) in a number of events starting with Accalia Khan, who bettered her seed time in the Girls 11-12 200m Individual Medley race by just over a second.
Not to be outdone Saiyana Baksh too bettered her seed time in the Girls 13-14 100m b breaststroke race by over three seconds while first day star performer Hannibal Gaskin took almost a second off his seed time in the Boys 13-14 100m breaststroke event.
Gasking clocked 1:25:88s to better his entry time of 1:26:85s. Second was Omari Dunn who clocked 1:29:03s bettering his seed time of 1:31:15s.
Another Trinidad-based swimmer Noelle Smith competing in the Girls 18 years and Over 100m breaststroke event, swam almost a second faster than her seed time.
Smith clocked 1:28:97 to better her seed time of 1:29:72.
The meet continues today from 11:20am. Warm-up commences at 10:30am.
