Swimming ace Nikoli Blackman has guaranteed himself a place on the T&T team for the Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) Meet in Barbados, July 8-12, following Thursday's opening-day victory in the Boys' 11 and Over 800-metre freestyle final of the National Open Long Course Swimming Championships at the National Aquatic Centre (NAC) in Balmain, Couva.
The event was one of only two final events to take place on Thursday night, the other was the Girls' 11 and Over 800m freestyle event.
Blackman, a triple-medal winner at the Carifta Championships in Barbados last month, splashed to an 'A' qualifying time of 8:47.01, thereby easily surpassing the required time of 8:56.33 needed for a Carifta berth.
Blackman decimated the field, finishing a mere six seconds short of the national record set by Olympian George Bovell III back in 2000, and 10 seconds behind the current record-holder Graham Chatoor, who set a time of 8:36.00 back in 2019.
He was the only swimmer to have made the qualifying mark. The Marlin swimmer was followed in second position by his colleague Zachary Anthony (9:18.89) of Marlin, third Kadeem Braithwaite (9:51.03) of Marlin, fourth Josiah Changar (10:20.61) of Marlin and fifth-place Trevor Burkette (10:37.90) who is also from the Marlin Swim Club.
Blackman afterwards said he just wanted to go out hard in the race but enjoy the race, which he did with consumate ease. Meanwhile, Amelia Rajack secured the gold medal in the girls' equivalent event but failed to make the qualifying time of 9:35.83 for CCCAN.
Rajack, a household name in local swimming, touched the wall in a time of 9:53.80. She was followed by second-place Zoe Anthony (10:05.96) and third Jade Foncette (10:41.04). However, Rajack, like Blackman, is almost certain of a CCCAN berth after her winning performance at the 5k Open Water Championship in Las Cuevas, recently.
Guardian Media Sports was told that the Aquatics Sports Association of T&T (ASATT) will ratify the team for CCCAN on Tuesday.
Action in the national long course championships was scheduled to continue Friday night and will go until Sunday.