T&T's Zoe An­tho­ny qual­i­fied to com­pete in three in­di­vid­ual fi­nals when the 39th Carif­ta Swim­ming Cham­pi­onship splashed off with pre­lim­i­nary heats at the Na­tion­al Aquat­ic Cen­tre, Wildey, St Michael, Bar­ba­dos, yes­ter­day morn­ing.

The 11-year-old An­tho­ny was ex­pect­ed to go af­ter medals last night af­ter she earned places in the 13-14 girls 800m freestyle, 200m breast­stroke and 100m but­ter­fly gold medal splash­es.

The quar­tet of Joy Black­ett, Zarek Wil­son, Gio­van­ni Ri­vas and Vris­nelit Fau­re were the next best T&T swim­mers in the heats af­ter they each qual­i­fied to con­test two fi­nals each.

Black­ett lined up in the 11-12 girls 200m breast­stroke and 100m but­ter­fly fi­nals, Wil­son who won 11 gold medals last year, nine of which were in­di­vid­ual swims se­cured spots in both the 13-14 boys 50m back­stroke and 100m but­ter­fly events; Ri­vas qual­i­fied to the 11-12 boys 50m back­stroke and 100m but­ter­fly, and Fau­re, in the 15-17 girls 200m breast­stroke and 100m but­ter­fly.

Over­all, T&T has 22 swim­mers qual­i­fied for in­di­vid­ual fi­nals while the 2010 cham­pi­ons al­so en­tered in all six 4x100 freestyle events last night.

The oth­er T&T swim­mers who qual­i­fied to fi­nals on the open­ing night in­clud­ed Rique­lio Joseph, Kyle West (13-14), An­neliese Mer­ry, William Reyes, Luke Gillette (15-17) in the 200m breast­stroke; Gabrielle Vick­les (13-14), and USA-based Gabriela Don­ahue (15-17) in the 50m back­stroke; Amelia Ra­jack (11-12), Jo­hann-Matthew Mata­moro (13-14), Gabriel By­noe, and Aqeel Joseph (15-17) in the 100m but­ter­fly.

Last year, T&T swim­mers un­der the guid­an­ce of head coach Shawn Pouchet placed fourth at the 38th Carif­ta Swim­ming Cham­pi­on­ship in Kingston, Ja­maica af­ter they end­ed the four days of com­pe­ti­tion (115 events) with 45 medals (19 gold, 19 sil­ver and sev­en bronze), sec­ond in terms of medals on­ly to cham­pi­on Ba­hamas, who bagged 56 medals (23 gold, 22 sil­ver and 11 bronze).

Two years ago, T&T al­so placed fourth in the Ba­hamas while it last cap­tured the ti­tle in 2010 in Ja­maica af­ter vic­to­ry in Aru­ba, a year ear­li­er as well.

In ad­di­tion to Wil­son, the T&T team will re­ly on the per­for­mances of USA-based Gabriela Don­ahue, Zoe An­tho­ny and Nikoli Black­man to come out on top ahead of the 23 oth­er par­tic­i­pat­ing coun­tries.

The oth­er coun­tries tak­ing part in­cludes An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, Aru­ba, Ba­hamas, Bermu­da, British Vir­gin Is­lands, Cay­man Is­lands, Cu­ra­cao, Do­mini­ca, French Guiana, Grena­da, Guade­loupe, Guyana, Haiti, Ja­maica, Mar­tinique, St Kitts/Nevis, St Lu­cia, St Maarten, St Mar­tin, St Vin­cent and The Grenadines, Turks & Caicos, US Vir­gin Is­lands and host Bar­ba­dos.

The meet which con­tin­ues to­day un­til Tues­day is an ap­proved qual­i­fi­er for the 18th FI­NA World Cham­pi­onship which takes place in Gwan­ju, Ko­rea lat­er this year as well as the Pan Amer­i­can Games in Li­ma, Pe­ru and the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Last week­end, when the wa­ter po­lo seg­ment of the Carif­ta Games was held at the same venue in Bar­ba­dos, T&T dom­i­nat­ed with gold medals in the 14 and Un­der Co-Ed, 19 and Un­der Boys, 19 and Un­der Girls, and a sil­ver in the 16 and Un­der Boys age-group com­pe­ti­tions.

Fol­low­ing the Carif­ta Swim­ming, the Open Wa­ter events will take place at Carlisle Bay on Wednes­day.

And on com­ple­tion of the Carif­ta Aquat­ic Cham­pi­onship, the T&T swim­mers will then com­pete at the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Am­a­teur Swim­ming Con­fed­er­a­tion (CC­CAN), from June 24- Ju­ly 8 al­so in Bar­ba­dos.