Powered by ace swimming twins Paul and Patrice Mahaica’s seven gold medals, North Georgetown (District 11) once again swam away with the spoils of the Swimming Championships of this year’s ‘Nationals’
With the heroics of other swimmers like Tzdeq Sekhel and Vladimir Woodroffe, who also made big splashes and the Mahaica twins medal haul at the National Aquatic Centre, District 11 emphatically retained the coveted title yesterday, tallying 418 points.
District 10 (Upper Demerara/Kwakwani) placed second with 351 points, followed by District 7 (Cuyuni Mazaruni) on 215 and District 12 (East Georgetown) on 187. Completing the top five was District 2 (Essequibo Coast-Pomeroon) on 174 points.
Patrice, who attends Richard Ishmael Secondary School, shone the brightest among the young swimming stars earning four gold medals.
The 17-year-old, who represented Guyana at this year’s Commonwealth Games in England, was in sublime form at Liliendaal, easily winning the girls 18 and under 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke and the 100 freestyle. Patrice, who owns multiple national records then returned to start the girls 4x50m freestyle relay team off to victory.
In the relay event, the quartet of Mahaica, Maiya Ifill, Monique Watson and Ariel Rodrigues looked like torpedoes in the water. Mahaica started the first leg and took command of the race after the first few strokes. Ifill picked up the pace in the second leg as did Watson who handed over to Rodrigues who put an exclamation mark on the victory to complete the gold medal swim.
Sekhel, 19, another national swimmer, was equally impressive, also stepping on the top podium step on four occasions.
He swam to gold in the boys 100m backstroke, 50m butterfly, 50m breaststroke and then teamed up with Paul Mahaica, Woodroffe and Stephon Ramkellewan to win the Boys 4x50m freestyle relay.
Paul Mahaica took individual honours in the boys 18 and under 50m and 100m freestyle races while Woodroffe won the boys 18 and under 100m backstroke and 50m butterfly events.
Meanwhile, cycling was also contested yesterday at the National Park, however up to press time the official results were still unavailable to the media.
The 60th edition of the National Schools Cycling, Swimming and Track and Field Championships continues today at the National Track and Field Centre at Edinburgh from 09:00hrs.
