Some three national short course swimming records were broken last weekend when the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) National Swimming Championships concluded at the National Aquatic Centre, Pattensen.
Fourteen-year-old Hannibal Gaskin sent the boys’ 13 – 14 years, 400m freestyle record toppling on Saturday to add to the other two records already broken by Bishop’s High School student Britany van Lange earlier in the competition.
But Gaskin’s record breaking performance was not enough for him to win the overall age group title which went to Omari Dunn, who trumped Gaskin by two points.
Despite Gaskin winning all seven of his races, Dunn gained the advantage by virtue of points gathered in swimming 10 events. Gaskin’s record breaking performance in the 400m put the new record at 4:44.94s.
Gaskin secured wins in the 100m butterfly, 50m breaststroke, 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 200m IM, 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle events while Dunn finished behind Gaskin in the 200m IM and finished third in the 200m, 100m and 50m freestyle as well as the 50m butterfly.
Dunn also finished second in the 50m backstroke which was won by Omar Adams in 37.18 seconds.
In the girls’ 15 – 17 years category a similar fate was meted out to Gaskin’s sibling Athena Gaskin, who could not manage an upset over van Lange for the category title. Athena could only sum up 72 points to confront the 99 points gained by van Lange.
Van Lange won all of the events in the category except the 100m and 200m breaststroke events where Athena took the opportunity to generate her only two wins.
The Goodwill Swimming Championships gold medalist wiped out records in the girls’ 400m freestyle (4.49.09s) and 800m freestyle (10:50.28s) events.
Meanwhile, Sarah King upstaged Amy Grant for the girls’ 9 – 10 age group title while Accalia Khan and Onika George made clean sweeps of the girls’ 11 – 12 and girls’ 13 – 14 age group events.
Niall Roberts found little competition and easily won the boys’ 18 years and over category while Joseph Seguina literally had no competition in the boys’ 15 – 17 years age group title.
Ten-year-old Nkosi Beaton won the boys’ 9 – 10 category while Silver Shark swimmer Leon Seaton won the boys’ 8 years and under age group title.
In the girls’ eight years and under category, the winner was Donna Carter who won from Naomi King.
Following the competition the age group champions were presented with prizes at a presentation ceremony at the NAC. (Tamica Garnett)
