USA-based Liam Car­ring­ton led the 15-17 boys’ 800m freestyle re­lay quar­tet to the gold medal in a new games record time to end the third night of fi­nals at the 38th edi­tion of the Carif­ta Aquat­ics Cham­pi­onships host­ed by the Aquat­ic Sports As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (ASATT) slashed at the Na­tion­al Aquat­ic Cen­tre in Bal­main, Cou­va, on Mon­day.

The 16-year-old Car­ring­ton, who had al­ready done the 200m in­di­vid­ual med­ley and the 200m freestyle in a new record ear­li­er on Mon­day, bet­tered a 16-year-old record with his re­lay team­mates Isa­iah Alexan­der, Liam Roberts, and Zachary An­tho­ny.

Car­ring­ton swam the lead-off leg and hand­ed T&T a com­mand­ing lead of over two body lengths, which was main­tained by Alexan­der, be­fore an­oth­er USA-based swim­mer, Roberts, the son of for­mer top na­tion­al swim­mer Shas­tri Roberts, widened the gap over the field be­fore An­tho­ny coast­ed home on the fi­nal leg for a com­bined time of sev­en min­utes, 54.25 sec­onds, just un­der the pre­vi­ous record swim of sev­en min­utes, 54.61 sec­onds, set by Mar­tinique in 2009.

It was al­so the third re­lay win for the 15-17 boys age-group swim­mers from T&T.

A dis­tant sec­ond to the wall was Aru­ba in eight min­utes, 05.59 sec­onds, while Ja­maica took third spot in eight min­utes, 06.61 sec­onds.

At the end of the first three nights of fi­nals, reign­ing cham­pi­ons the Ba­hamas led with a to­tal of 55 medals (21 gold, 16 sil­ver and 18 bronze), while T&T was sec­ond with 14 gold, sil­ver and bronze each for a to­tal of 42, just one more than Ja­maica, which cap­tured 12 gold, 17 sil­ver and 12 bronze.

The Ba­hami­ans al­so dom­i­nat­ed the points stand­ings with 739, well clear of Ja­maica, which amassed 566.5 with host T&T, which was third with 532.

Speak­ing at the end of the night, Car­ring­ton, who at­tends the pres­ti­gious Bolles High School in Flori­da, USA and has so far won sev­en gold medals in­clu­sive of five records and a sil­ver medal, said he didn’t an­tic­i­pate do­ing this well.

“I didn’t ex­pect to do this well, but I knew I was go­ing to do well, but not this good.”

“I’m hap­py that I’m swim­ming this fast, as it tells me my work is pay­ing off, and I’m just hap­py to be home and swim­ming here at the Na­tion­al Aquat­ic Cen­tre,” stat­ed Car­ring­ton.

Look­ing ahead to the fi­nal day of com­pe­ti­tion, Car­ring­ton said he was hop­ing to pos­si­bly break more records and add to his gold medal tal­ly. “

The 13-14 girls 800 freestyle re­al team of Mare­na Mar­tinez, Nik­ki Har­ryper­sad, Rae­gan Bel­mar and Zara Per­si­co was al­so among the medals for T&T, with a sil­ver in nine min­utes, 19.73 sec­onds.

Ba­hamas swam to the gold medal in nine min­utes, 11.65 sec­onds, while Ja­maica again took home the bronze medals in nine min­utes, 27.70 sec­onds.

Toni-Rae Yates se­cured her first sil­ver when she fin­ished sec­ond in the 15-17 girls 200m but­ter­fly in two min­utes, 29.72 sec­onds, fin­ish­ing be­hind Bar­ba­di­an Jaiya Sim­mons, who won in two min­utes, 28.90 sec­onds, while Ba­hami­an Lelah Lewis was third in two min­utes, 30.14 sec­onds.

There were al­so late bronze medal per­for­mances from Asia-Marie Pouchet and An­tho­ny.

Pouchet had to set­tle for the bronze in the 13-14 girls’ 200m but­ter­fly in 2:45.10 sec­onds, trail­ing Ba­hami­an Is­abel­la Cuc­cu­rul­lo, who raced to gold in 2:35.12 sec­onds, well clear of run­ner-up Anya De Gannes of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, who end­ed in 2:42.51 sec­onds.

In the 15-17 boys’ 200m but­ter­fly, An­tho­ny clocked two min­utes, 08.84 sec­onds for the bronze, with Hait­ian Chris­t­ian Jerome the win­ner in two min­utes, 04.82 sec­onds and An­tigua and Bar­bu­da’s Ethan Stubbs-Green tak­ing sil­ver in two min­utes, 07.87 sec­onds.

Re­flect­ing on the per­for­mances of the T&T swim­mers on Mon­day night, as­sis­tant coach Paul Newal­lo said it was a fan­tas­tic night.

“We had 18 medals to bet­ter our pre­vi­ous high of 12 medals on a third night, so we sur­passed that by six more medals as the mo­men­tum con­tin­ues to build, and this was our best night ever in Carif­ta Aquat­ics in terms of medal to­tal, and we are look­ing for­ward to the last day of per­for­mances.”

Newal­lo was full of praise for the T&T swim­mers and al­so sin­gled out the out­stand­ing dis­plays by Liam Car­ring­ton thus far, say­ing, “Car­ring­ton has been hav­ing an out­stand­ing meet so far with sev­en gold medals and about five to six per­son­al records along with his Carif­ta records.”

“He is re­al­ly pulling the way for the team, and over­all, the oth­er swim­mers are al­so hav­ing out­stand­ing swims as they con­tribute to the team, as we are the on­ly coun­try to have bro­ken records thus far.”

With the Ba­hamas set to se­cure a sev­enth straight Carif­ta Aquat­ics crown, Newal­lo said his team must still take cred­it for the ef­forts put in, as they will fall short of win­ning a first Carif­ta Aquat­ics ti­tle since 2010 in Kingston, Ja­maica, to keep hold of the ti­tle won a year ear­li­er in Sa­vane­ta, Aru­ba.

He ex­plained, “That’s the thing about be­ing the cham­pi­on: every time you have some­body in front, they will al­ways have the tar­get on them.”

“So, def­i­nite­ly, the aim was to beat them, but again, it’s all about ca­ma­raderie in sport, and we couldn’t think of any­thing else but try­ing to beat the de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons while we are host­ing, and we would al­so like to thank the crowd for help­ing us in push­ing for the medals.”

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.

Carif­ta Aquat­ics Points stand­ings af­ter Day 3 (98 events):

Po­si­tion*Teams*Points

1*Ba­hamqs*739

2*Ja­maica*566.5

3.T&T*532

4. Cay­man Is­lands*361.5

5. Bar­ba­dos*343

6. Aru­ba*339

7. Mar­tinique*243

8. An­tigua & Bar­bu­da*165

9. US Vir­gin Is­lands*123

10. St Lu­cia*109

11. Grena­da*80

12. St Vin­cent and The Grenadines*54

13. Haiti*45

14. Suri­name*43

15. Guade­loupe*29

16. Cu­ra­cao*28.5

16. Bermu­da*28.5

18. Sint Maarten*3

19. Be­lize*2

Carif­ta Aquat­ics Medal stand­ings af­ter Day 3 (98 events):

Po­si­tion*Teams*Gold*Sil­ver*Bronze*To­tal

1*Ba­hams*21*16*18*55

2*T&T*14*14*14*42

3*Ja­ma­iac*12*17*12*41

4*Cay­man Is­lands*12*6*6*24

5. Bar­ba­dos*10*6*5*21

6. US Vir­gin Is­lands*5*1*3*9

7. Aru­ba*4*11*8*23

8. Haiti*4*0*0*4

9. An­tigua & Bar­bu­da*3*6*5*14

10. St Lu­cia*3*3*4*10

11. Grena­da*1*4*2*7

12. Mar­tinique*0*2*6*8

13. Suri­name*0*2*1*3

14. SVG*0*1*3*4

15. Cu­ra­cao*0*1*0*1

16. Bermu­da*0*0*2*2