North Georgetown (District 11) yesterday once again asserted their aquatic supremacy by winning the swimming event of the 53rd edition of the National School’s Athletics, Swimming and Cycling Championship held at the Castellani Pool.
The defending champions ended with a total aggregate of 377 points in the swimming leg of the championships with 203 of their points coming from the girls and 174 provided by the boys.
They comfortably edged opponents Upper Demerara/Kwakwani (District 10) who placed second with an overall aggregate of 258,
compliments of 133 from the boys and 125 from the girls.
Third place went to Cuyuni/Mazaruni (District 7) who amassed a total of 206 points with 97 from the girls and 109 from the boys.
Coming up against 15 other districts from across the country, North Georgetown, led by national swimmers Britany van Lange, Jamila Sanmoogan, Dylan Nurse, Athena Foo and Nicholas Moore, out swam the competition in the various categories. Sanmoogan destroyed the competition in the girls’ Under-18 50m freestyle copping gold with a time of 31.46s.
The girls’ Open 50M freestyle event saw Foo copping the gold medal with a time of 36.09s while Nicholas Moore finished second in the boys Open 50m freestyle event behind District 10 swimmer Marlon Daniels.
The 100m backstroke event was not able to be contested due to a late start which resulted in the flags not be positioned early. According to officials who then gave the respective districts the opportunity to have the event contested after the last scheduled event, 11 of the 16 districts opted not to participate in the event.
Meanwhile, in an invited comment, Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) President Colin Bynoe, told Stabroek Sport that he was so far pleased with this year’s championships despite the late start for some of the events. He also said that he is hopeful that the other districts will be afforded the opportunity to be exposed to the same sort of environment as the district 11 swimmers.
The championships, which is being sponsored by Digicel and endorsed by the Ministry of Education (MOE), continues today at 9:00hrs at the National Stadium, Providence.
Acting President, Samuel Hinds, Honorable Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand as well as a representative from main sponsor, Digicel, are expected to address the Opening Ceremony, which will also feature performances from the Ministry of Education Unit of Allied Arts.
