Christian Marsden secured this country's first gold medal of the 20th Caribbean Islands Swimming Championship when he won the 14-17 Boys 5K Open Water swim at Carlyle Bay, St Michael's Barbados on Monday.
Marsden was the first home in his age-group in one hour, 06.53 minutes and was also awarded the Champion Trophy for his performance in that age group.
Second was another T&T entrant in Kael Yorke who clocked 1.07:03 hrs.
Among girls, Syriah David got silver in the 14-17 category in 1.07:47 while sister Shania David won the bronze in a time of 1.11:53 to go with her silver in the 10K on Sunday at the same venue.
In the 18 & Over competition, Theana Hay also earned a second silver in 1:10.20 to add to her Sunday's medal in the 10K as well.
This brings the total medal haul to seven for T&T at the end of the Open Water competition which makes way for the swimming competition that splashes off today at the Aquatic Centre, Wildey.
Leading the medal hunt for the T&T team–which finally arrived in Barbados early yesterday after being delayed at Piarco International Airport because of a Caribbean Airlines pilot 'sick-out'–will be North American-based duo, Alexandria Donahue and Tyla Martin, and Joshua Ramkissoon who will make their return to the national swimming team after skipping the Carifta Games earlier this year due to school commitments.
Today, the 100m backstroke, 1500m freestyle, 100m breaststroke, 50m freestyle and 200m individual medley and 400m medley relay events will take place. In addition to T&T and host Barbados, the 18 other participating countries at the CISC event include Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St Kitts/Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Turks & Caicos and US Virgin Islands.
Two years ago, in Aruba, the host country emerged as overall champions with 1,411 points and 69 medals (26 gold, 22 silver and 21 bronze) to end T&T's run of two straight titles. T&T had to settle for this time around with 74 medals (26 gold, 26 silver and 22 bronze) for 911 points.