Nigel Si­mon

Debu­tant, USA-based Gabriela Don­ahue led the way with two more gold medals as T&T won five gold, three sil­ver and a bronze on the fi­nal night of com­pe­ti­tion at the 2015 Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Na­tion Swim­ming Cham­pi­onship at the Na­tion­al Aquat­ic Cen­tre, Wildey, Christ Church, Bar­ba­dos on Sat­ur­day.

In ad­di­tion to Don­ahue, Kael Yorke, Ami­ra Pil­grim and the boys 18 & Over quar­tet of Strass­er Sankar and the Mc Leod broth­ers, David, Joshua and Abra­ham all added gold medals as T&T end­ed as the top medal win­ners with 42 (27 gold, 13 sil­ver, two bronze), just ahead of points cham­pi­ons Puer­to Ri­co which col­lect­ed a joint best of 61 medals with fourth placed medal win­ners Cos­ta Ri­ca.

How­ev­er, both won less gold than T&T, with Puer­to Ri­co claim­ing 25 gold, 20 sil­ver and 16 bronze and Cos­ta Ri­ca, 13 gold, 18 sil­ver and 30 bronze.

Bar­ba­dos was third with 53 medals, 19 gold, 18 sil­ver and 16 bronze.

On the points ta­ble, Puer­to Ri­co led from start to fin­ish for 878.33 points fol­lowed by Cos­ta Ri­ca (768), Bar­ba­dos (574), Hon­duras (488) and T&T with 464.83.

Don­ahue won the 11-12 girls 200m in­di­vid­ual med­ley in two min­utes, 31.81 sec­onds, well ahead of Bar­ba­di­an duo, Danielle Ti­tus (2:35.79) and Ash­ley Weekes (2:36.13).

She al­so cap­tured pre­cious gold in the 100m freestyle in one minute, 01.64 for her eighth in­di­vid­ual gold medal of the five-day cham­pi­onship, while Ti­tus was sec­ond in 1:02.36 and Cos­ta Ri­can Sofia Di Bar­to­lo, third, in one minute, 02.94.

Kael Yorke out­classed his ri­vals in the 13-14 boys 50m but­ter­fly in 26.02, just a shave ahead of team-mate Jeron Thomp­son (26.03) while Suri­name's Yael Touw Ngie Tjouw got bronze in 26.79.

Ami­ra Pil­grim added gold in the 15-17 girls 50m but­ter­fly in 29.94 to beat Cos­ta Ri­ca's Ana Luisa Tor­res (30.76) and Hon­duran Juli­mar Avi­la (30.83) in­to sec­ond and third re­spec­tive­ly.

And the quar­tet of Strass­er Sankar, and Mc Leod broth­ers, David (18), Abra­ham (22) and Joshua (24) com­bined for gold in the 18 & Over boys 400m freestyle re­lay in three min­utes, 33.35, clear of Pana­ma (3:38.63) and Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic (3:41.08) which were sec­ond and third re­spec­tive­ly.

Racine Ross, Mc Leod (J) and Aqeel Joseph added sil­ver medals for T&T while Pil­grim al­so picked up a bronze medal.

Ross had to set­tle for sil­ver in the 13-14 girls 50m but­ter­fly in 29.48, a fin­ger-tip be­hind Aruban Kee­ley Maduro (29.46) while An­tigua and Bar­bu­da's Saman­tha Roberts (29.65).

Mc Leod (J) touched the wall in 25.05 be­hind Ja­maican Justin Plasch­ka (24.89) in the 18 & Over boys 50m but­ter­fly with Hon­duran Al­lan Gui­tier­rez, third in 25.49 while Joseph clocked 28.96 for sec­ond in the 11-12 boys 50m but­ter­fly be­hind Puer­to Ri­can Je­re­my Med­i­na (28.81) while USVI's Ky Od­lum was third in 29.34.

Yes­ter­day was the start of the Open Wa­ter events with T&T be­ing rep­re­sent­ed by a sev­en-mem­ber team mi­nus Carif­ta cham­pi­ons Chris­t­ian Mars­den who is prepar­ing for next month's Pan Amer­i­can Games in Toron­to, Cana­da.

?Fi­nal Ta­ble

Coun­try G S B To­tal

T&T 27 13 2 42

Puer­to Ri­co 25 20 16 61

Bar­ba­dos 19 18 16 53

Cos­ta Ri­ca 13 18 30 61

Pana­ma 11 16 4 31

Hon­duras 9 7 21 37

Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic 9 7 21 37

Suri­name 7 9 4 20

Aru­ba 6 13 3 22

Cu­ra­cao 6 2 0 8

Ja­maica 3 1 1 5

Bermu­da 3 1 0 4

USVI 2 3 5 10

St Lu­cia 1 5 6 12

An­tigua & Bar­bu­da 1 4 2 7

Grena­da 1 0 2 3

Points ta­ble

Puer­to Ri­co � 878.33

Cos­ta Ri­ca � 768

Bar­ba­dos � 574

Hon­duras � 488

T&T � 464.83

Pana­ma � 394.5

Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic � 334

Aru­ba � 290

Suri­name � 229.5

St Lu­cia � 150

Cu­ra­cao � 101

An­tigua & Bar­bu­da � 88

Ja­maica � 54.5

Grena­da � 52.83

Bermu­da � 46