Youth Olympic Games-bound swim­mers, Kristin Julien and David Mc Leod were in record break­ing form as they claimed two of four in­di­vid­ual gold medals, and six over­all for T&T on the open­ing night of fi­nals at the 29th Carif­ta Swim­ming Cham­pi­onship on Tues­day night.

Com­pet­ing at the Pisci­na Olimpi­co Roly Bis­lik, Oran­jes­tad, Sa­vane­ta in Aru­ba, Julien, who lived up to her top seed billing in the 15-17 girls 50 me­tres back­stroke with a 30.86 sec­onds clock­ing in the heats, just ahead of Ja­maican Danielle Boothe (31.27), re­turned in the af­ter­noon ses­sion to claim gold in 29.84 sec­onds, bet­ter­ing the 2012 pre­vi­ous best Carif­ta time of 30.05 set by coun­try­woman, Kim­ber­lee John-Williams.

Julien's time was al­so faster than the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CAC) Games A stan­dard qual­i­fy­ing time of 29.99. Sec­ond was Suri­name's Bri­enne Ren­furm in 30.59 fol­lowed by Guade­loupe's Char­lotte Back­ovic (30.62) and Boothe (30.91), who all at­tained the Youth Olympic Games B stan­dard time of 31.42 while T&T's Ariel Cape was fifth in 31.94.

One event lat­er, Mc Leod, who in the morn­ing heats touched the wall in 26.93, to bet­ter the Youth Olympic Games A qual­i­fy­ing stan­dard of 27.19 for the 15-17 boys 50m back­stroke, once again dom­i­nat­ed his ri­vals with a new Carif­ta record and World Cham­pi­onship B (26.41) qual­i­fy­ing mark of 26.31 in win­ning gold ahead of team-mate Jabari Bap­tiste (27.51) and Ba­hami­an Dion­i­sio Carey (28.01). Both Bap­tiste and Carey achieved for the sec­ond time on the day, the Youth Olympic Games B stan­dard time of 28.14.

The oth­er T&T gold medal win­ners on the first day were Justin Sam­lals­ingh, Ja­da Chai, and the 11-12 girls and 15-17 boys 4x100m freestyle re­lay teams.

Sam­lals­ingh sped to T&T's first gold on the night when he won the 13-14 boys 50m back­stroke in 28.42, ahead of An­tigua & Bar­bu­da's Noah Mas­coll-Gomes (28.82) and Aruban Patrick Grot­ers (28.89).

Chai swam to her first gold of the meet in the 11-12 girls 100m but­ter­fly in 1:08.31, beat­ing Bermu­da's Em­ma Har­vey (1:08.61) and Aruban Elis­a­beth Tim­mer (1:10.47), re­spec­tive­ly, while the oth­er T&T en­trant in the fi­nal, Vris­nelit Fau­re was fourth in 1:12.23.

Chai al­so took bronze in the 50m back­stroke in 32.79 be­hind the record break­ing duo of Bermu­da's Har­vey (31.93) and Danielle Ti­tus of Bar­ba­dos, who stopped the clock in 32.02 while T&T's Jah­mia Harley was eighth in 34.22. Har­vey and Ti­tus were faster than the 2012 record of 32.26 set by Ja­maican An­gara Sin­clair.

The 11-12 girls girls 4x100m freestyle quar­tet of Deshor Ed­wards, Harley, Fau­re and Chai, swim­ming the an­chor-leg then com­bined for gold in 4:22.73, just ahead of Bermu­da (4:22.93) while a dis­tant third was Aru­ba (4:27.22).

Mc Leod al­so picked up re­lay gold when he swam the lead-off for the 15-17 boys 4x100m freestyle squad which al­so in­clud­ed Joshua Ramkissoon, Jeron O'Brien and Bap­tiste in clock­ing 3:35.81 well clear of Mar­tinique (3:37.30) and Ba­hamas (3:40.55).

How­ev­er, the 13-14 boys com­bi­na­tion of Os­aze Ri­ley, James Gillette, Christo­pher Mo­hammed and Kael Yorke had to set­tle for sil­ver in 3:47.05, six hun­dredths of a sec­ond be­hind cham­pi­on Ja­maica (3:46.99) while Mar­tinique took third in 3:47.88.

Yorke al­so added a bronze in the 100m but­ter­fly in 1:00.61, to trail Bermu­da win­ner Jesse Wash­ing­ton (58.77) and Guade­loupe's Samuel Man­nette (1:00.07).

Oth­er T&T swim­mers who com­pet­ed in fi­nals but did not make it to the medal ros­trum were Fau­re (3:02.51) and Sab­ri­na David (3:04.99) who were fifth and sev­enth re­spec­tive­ly in the 11-12 girls 200m back­stroke, and Bap­tiste, who end­ed joint fifth with Suri­name's Wayne Denswil, both clock­ing 58.83 in the 15-17 boys 100m but­ter­fly.

At the end of day one T&T led the medal ta­ble with ten (six gold, two sil­ver, two bronze) medals fol­lowed by Ba­hamas with 13 (four gold, five sil­ver and four bronze), Bar­ba­dos with eighth (three gold, four sil­ver, one bronze), Aru­ba with 13 (three gold, three sil­ver, sev­en bronze) and Suri­name with six (three gold, one sil­ver, two bronze).

How­ev­er, Ba­hamas led on the points ta­ble with 149 af­ter 26 events fol­lowed by T&T (124.5), host Aru­ba (124), Mar­tinique (113) and three-time de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Guade­loupe with 101.

Last year, T&T swim­mers end­ed sec­ond on the medal ta­ble with 51 medals (22 gold, 16 sil­ver and 13 bronze), 13 be­hind Guade­loupe (17 gold, 28 sil­ver and 19 bronze) while Aru­ba was third with 50 (21 gold, 17 sil­ver and 12 bronze).

But the Mark Pouchet-coached T&T con­tin­gent is with­out sev­en of its top swim­mers who brought in 23 of the 47 medals won last year in Ja­maica in­clud­ing Dy­lan Carter, Joshua Ro­many, Alexan­dria Don­ahue, Ty­la Mar­tin, An­dre Goin, Joshua Ramkissoon and Re­bec­ca Mar­shall due to oth­er com­mit­ments.

The Carif­ta Cham­pi­onships is al­so serv­ing as an of­fi­cial qual­i­fy­ing meet for the 16th FI­NA World Cham­pi­onships 2015 which will be held in Kazan, Rus­sia and has been ap­proved as a qual­i­fy­ing meet for Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Games (CAC) in Ve­r­acruz, Mex­i­co and the Youth Olympic Games.

Yes­ter­day, on the sec­ond morn­ing of heats, T&T had 18 swim­mers qual­i­fied for fi­nals in the 200m freestyle, 50m but­ter­fly, 100m back­stroke and 400m med­ley re­lay while to­day, the 200m in­di­vid­ual med­ley (IM), 50m breast­stroke, 100m freestyle, 200m but­ter­fly and 800m freestyle re­lay events take place.

Medal ta­ble af­ter Day One (26 events)

Teams*Gold*Sil­ver*Bronze*To­tal

T&T*6*2*2*10

Ba­hamas*4*5*4*13

Bar­ba­dos*3*4*1*8

Aru­ba*3*3*7*13

Suri­name*3*1*2*6

Ja­maica*2*4*3*9

Guade­loupe*2*3*2*7

Mar­tinique*1*2*4*7

Bermu­da*1*1*0*2

French Guyana*1*1*0*2

Cu­ra­cao*1*0*2*3

An­tigua & Bar­bu­da*1*0*0*1

Cay­man Is­lands*0*1*0*1

British Vir­gin Is­lands*0*0*1*1

Top Points ta­ble af­ter Day One (26 events)

Ba­hamas � 149 points

T&T � 124.5

Aru­ba � 124

Mar­tinique -113

Guade­loupe � 101

Suri­name � 93.5

Ja­maica � 81

Bar­ba­dos � 74

Cu­ra­cao � 44

Cay­man Is­lands � 36

Bermu­da � 34

French Guyana � 29

An­tigua & Bar­bu­da � 19

Bermu­da � 16

Cay­man Aquat­ics � 13

US Vir­gin Is­lands � 9

Grena­da � 7

British Vir­gin Is­lands - 6

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