USA-based Liam Car­ring­ton won three in­di­vid­ual gold medals, and Zuri Fer­gu­son won two in­di­vid­ual gold medals, while Zachary An­tho­ny, Cather­ine Di­ef­fen­thaller, Ethan McMil­lan-Cole and Tay­lor Marchan all won gold for T&T on the fi­nal night of the 38th edi­tion of the Carif­ta Aquat­ics Cham­pi­onships host­ed by the Aquat­ic Sports As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (ASATT) on Tues­day.

When the four days of swim­ming end­ed at the Na­tion­al Aquat­ic Cen­tre in Bal­main, Cou­va, Ba­hamas, made a suc­cess­ful de­fence of their team ti­tle with 979 points, with Ja­maica a dis­tant sec­ond with 795.5, and T&T third with 735, while the Cay­man Is­lands (477.5) and Aru­ba (469) com­plet­ed the top five na­tions.

On the fi­nal night, T&T swim­mers tal­lied nine gold, the most by any team, as well as three sil­ver and three bronze medals each to end with 57 medals and sec­ond on the medal ta­ble, be­hind the Ba­hamas, who won 74 medals, in­clu­sive of 27 gold, 23 sil­ver and 24 bronze, while Ja­maica was third with 56 medals (21 gold, 19 sil­ver and 16 bronze), with the Cay­man Is­lands end­ing with 32 medals (13 gold, 10 sil­ver and nine bronze), the same as Bar­ba­dos, who se­cured 11 gold, nine sil­ver and 12 bronze.

Last year in the Ba­hamas, T&T cap­tured 58 medals (24 gold, 15 sil­ver, and 19 bronze) to fin­ish sec­ond on the medal ta­ble, be­hind cham­pi­ons and hosts the Ba­hamas, among the 25 coun­tries, while in 2023, T&T se­cured 54 medals (22 gold, 16 sil­ver, and 16) for 534 points to fin­ish third, be­hind cham­pi­ons the Ba­hamas, who cap­tured 85 medals (37 gold, 27 sil­ver, and 21 bronze) for 1,113 points, and the Cay­man Is­lands fin­ished in the sec­ond spot with 53 medals (25 gold, 16 sil­ver, and 12 bronze) for 752 points.

The 16-year-old Car­ring­ton won his sev­enth in­di­vid­ual gold medal and sec­ond on the night for ten golds over­all when he touched the wall in 22.75 sec­onds in the 15-17 boys 50m freestyle, with coun­try­man Evan Gillard-Bruce sec­ond in 23.22 and St Lu­cian Tris­tan Dorville third in 23.48.

The first gold medal of the night for Car­ring­ton, who at­tends the pres­ti­gious Bolles High School in Flori­da, came six events ear­li­er in the 15-17 boys 400m freestyle in four min­utes, 07.08 sec­onds, just ahead of Aruban In­ald Fer­nan­des, who touched the wall in four min­utes, 07.77 sec­onds, with Bermu­dan Thomas Ce­chi­ni, third in four min­utes, 07.78 sec­onds.

He then won his third in­di­vid­ual gold when he just missed out on bet­ter­ing the 15-17 boys 200m back­stroke record of two min­utes, 04.44 sec­onds when he touched the wall in two min­utes, 04.88 sec­onds, well clear of Cay­man Is­lands’ Luke Hig­go, who got sec­ond in two min­utes, 12.14 sec­onds, and Ja­maican Brady Lewi­son, the bronze medal­list, in two min­utes, 13.21 sec­onds.

Just as he had done the three pre­vi­ous nights, Car­ring­ton then spear­head­ed the 15-17 boys re­lay team to gold in record time.

This time, Jaden Mills swam the lead-off leg in the 200m freestyle fol­lowed by Gillard-Bruce, Zachary An­tho­ny and Car­ring­ton for a com­bined time of one minute, 33.29 sec­onds, which im­proved on the pre­vi­ous record mark of one minute, 34.46 sec­onds held by the 2023 T&T quar­tet of Nikoli Black­man, Gio­van­ni Ri­vas, An­tho­ny and Zarek Wil­son.

An­tho­ny was the first swim­mer to win gold for the host coun­try on the fi­nal night as he outswam his ri­vals in the 15-17 boys 800m freestyle with a time of eight min­utes, 40.75 sec­onds, with Cay­man Is­lands’ Do­minic Hilton sec­ond in eight min­utes, 40.79 sec­onds, and US Vir­gin Is­lands’ Daryan May­nard third in eight min­utes, 50.64 sec­onds.

In the 13-14 girls 400m freestyle, Zara Per­si­co (4:46.22 min­utes) and Mare­na Mar­tinez (4:46.44 min­utes) added sil­ver and bronze, re­spec­tive­ly, be­hind the US Vir­gin Is­lands’ Rea­gan Uszen­s­ki, who won yet an­oth­er gold medal in 4:32.94 min­utes.

Ethan McMil­lan-Cole joined the ‘Gold Par­ty’ for the host by top­ping the field in the 13-14 boys 100 breast­stroke in one minute, 10.64 sec­onds, fol­lowed by Ba­hami­an Alexan­der Mur­ray in one minute, 11.10 sec­onds, and his team­mate David Singh, who end­ed in one minute, 11.26 sec­onds.

Cather­ine Diefen­thaller al­so swam to gold for the lo­cals in the next event, the 15-17 girls 100m breast­stroke, in one minute 14.28 sec­onds, beat­ing An­tigua & Bar­bu­da’s El­lie Shaw (1:14.62 min­utes) and Ba­hami­an El­yse Wood (1:17.01 min­utes) in­to sec­ond and third, re­spec­tive­ly.

Tay­lor Marchan won her first in­di­vid­ual event of the com­pe­ti­tion when she stormed home in the 13-14 girls 200m back­stroke event in two min­utes, 27.29 sec­onds, fol­lowed to the wall by Cu­ra­cao’s Gabrielle Jo­hannes in two min­utes, 32.09 sec­onds, and Ba­hami­an Skyler Smith in two min­utes, 33.78 sec­onds.

Fer­gu­son se­cured an­oth­er gold as she dom­i­nat­ed her ri­vals in the 15-17 girls 200m back­stroke in two min­utes, 14.53 sec­onds to low­er her own record of two min­utes, 16.04 sec­onds, which she set last year in the Ba­hamas, while Ja­maican Car­olyn Levy-Pow­ell was sec­ond in two min­utes, 24.29 sec­onds, and Ri­ley Wat­son, of the Cay­man Is­lands, was third in two min­utes, 27.51.

Za­lay­har Lewis added a sil­ver medal in the 11-12 girls 100m breast­stroke in one minute, 23.54 sec­onds to fin­ish be­hind Ba­hami­an Is­abel­la Munroe, who took gold in one minute, 22.64, while Si­en­na Camp­bell of the Ba­hamas got bronze in one minute, 24.30 sec­onds.

The 11-12 boys four­some of Khris­t­ian Allen, Dim­itri Phillip, Julis En­nals, and Eli­hu Brown com­bined for bronze in the 200m freestyle re­lay in one minute, 53.07 sec­onds, be­hind the Ba­hamas (1:48.78) and Aru­ba (1:52.95), while the 13-14 girls quar­tet of Per­si­co, Bre­an­na Bel­mar, her twin sis­ter Rae­gan Bel­mar, and Asia-Marie Pouchet earned a bronze medal in the 200m freestyle re­lay in one minute, 52.88 sec­onds af­ter fin­ish­ing be­hind Ja­maica (1:49.88) and the Ba­hamas (1:51.44).

Fi­nal Carif­ta Aquat­ics Points stand­ings (133 events)

Po­si­tion*Teams*Points

1*Ba­hamqs*979

2*Ja­maica*795.5

3.T&T*735

4. Cay­man Is­lands*477.5

5. Aru­ba*469

6. Bar­ba­dos*461

7. Mar­tinique*327

8. An­tigua & Bar­bu­da*217

9. US Vir­gin Is­lands*173

10. St Lu­cia*148

11. Grena­da*112

12. St Vin­cent and The Grenadines*75

13. Suri­name*62

14. Haiti*46

15. Cu­ra­cao*44.5

15. Bermu­da*44.5

17. Guade­loupe*40

18. Sint Maarten*7

19. Turks & Caicos*4

20. Be­lize*2

20. Be­lize*2

Fi­nal Carif­ta Aquat­ics Medal stand­ings (133 events)

Po­si­tion*Teams*Gold*Sil­ver*Bronze*To­tal

1*Ba­hamas*27*23*24*74

2*T&T*23*17*17*57

3*Ja­maica*21*19*16*56

4*Cay­man Is­lands*13*10*9*32

5. Bar­ba­dos*11*9*12*32

6. US Vir­gin Is­lands*6*2*4*12

7. Aru­ba*5*15*10*30

8. An­tigua & Bar­bu­da*4*7*6*17

9. St Lu­cia*4*3*6*13

10. Haiti*4*0*0*4

11. Grena­da*1*7*3*11

12. Mar­tinique*1*3*7*11

13. SVG*1*2*3*6

14. Suri­name*0*2*1*3

15. Cu­ra­cao*0*2*0*2

16. Guade­loupe*0*1*0*1

17. Bermu­da*0*0*3*3

FI­NA Age-Group High Point win­ners

Girls

11-12: Kai­ja East­mond (B’dos) - 641 points

13-14: Skye­lar Richards (Jam) - 727

15-17: Zuri Fer­gu­son (T&T) - 779

Boys

11-12: Dex­ter Rus­sell (Bah) - 515 points

13-14: Noland Bar­rett (Jam) - 698

15-17: Liam Car­ring­ton (T&T) - 830

In­di­vid­ual Age-Group win­ners:

Girls

11-12

1. Sap­phire Parks (St Luc) - 65

2. Kai­ja East­mond (B’dos) - 62

3. Kai Law­son (Jam) - 58

13-14

1. Rea­gan Uszen­s­ki (USVI) - 64

2. Skye­lar Richards (Jam) - 61

3. Mare­na Mar­tinez (T&T) - 38

15-17

1. Sier­rah Broad­belt (Cay­man Is­lands) - 56

2. Hei­di Stoute (B’dos) - 51

3. Zuri Fer­gu­son (T&T) - 45

Boys

11-12

1. Dex­ter Rus­sell (Bah) - 56

2. Alessan­dro Baz­zoni (A&B) - 47

3. Za­y­ron Wer­le­man (Aru­ba) - 46

13-14

1. Lev Fahy (Cay­man Is­lands) - 66

2. Noland Bar­rett (Jam) - 58

3. David Singh (Bah) - 43

15-17

1. Liam Car­ring­ton (T&T) - 79

2. Do­minic Hilton (Cay­man Is­lands) - 45

3. Zachary An­tho­ny (T&T) - 43