NIGEL SI­MON

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

nigel.si­mon@guardian.co.tt

T&T’s Liam Car­ring­ton made it three record gold medal swims from as many fi­nals at the 38th edi­tion of the Carif­ta Aquat­ics Cham­pi­onships host­ed by the Aquat­ic Sports As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (ASATT) when he shat­tered coun­try­man Dy­lan Carter’s 12-year-old 15-17 boys’ 200m freestyle record.

Fresh off break­ing the 50m back­stroke record on the open­ing night at the beau­ti­ful Na­tion­al Aquat­ic Cen­tre in Bal­main, Cou­va, on Sat­ur­day, as well as the 4x100m freestyle re­lay mark along with Za­c­jary An­tho­ny, Jadon Mills and Evan Gillard-Bruce. The USA-based Car­ring­ton, who at­tends Bolles High School in Flori­da, scorched his 200m freestyle ri­vals in one minute, 49.49 sec­onds to bet­ter Carter’s 2013 top time of one minute, 50.35, while Aruban In­ald Per­na was sec­ond in one minute, 53.60, and Bermu­dan Thomas Ce­chi­ni, third in one minute, 54.83.

The time by Car­ring­ton was al­so be­low the World Aquat­ics Cham­pi­onship “B” stan­dard qual­i­fy­ing time of one minute, 50.43 sec­onds for the 22nd edi­tion of the World Aquat­ics Cham­pi­onships (LCM), which takes place from Ju­ly 11 to Au­gust 3 in Sin­ga­pore.

Car­ring­ton was not done yet, as he re­turned a few events lat­er to com­plete the dou­ble in the back­stroke when he swam to the 100m ti­tle in 55.32 to im­prove on Bar­ba­di­an Jack Kir­by’s 2018 mark of 56.59, while Ja­maican Brady Lewi­son was sec­ond in 58.67 and Ba­hami­an El­lie Gib­son was third in 59.45.

For Car­ring­ton it was al­so an­oth­er B-stan­dard world qual­i­fi­ca­tion mark, as he went faster than the 55.83 time.

Like Car­ring­ton T&T’s Zuri Fer­gu­son al­so added to her record gold­en swim in the 50m back­stroke on Sat­ur­day by tak­ing down her own 2024 record of one minute, 02.82 with a new mark of one minute, 02.48, al­so an­oth­er B stan­dard world time.

Ja­maican Car­olyn Levy-Pow­ell was sec­ond in 1:04.83 min­utes, and US Vir­gin Is­lands’ Ri­ley Miller was third in 1:05.85.

Tay­lor Marchan added a sil­ver for the host coun­try in the 13-14 girls 100m back­stroke in 1:08.14 to fin­ish be­hind Ja­maican Skye­lar Richards, who won in 1:07.54, while Ba­hami­an Sky­lar Smith got bronze in 1:08.21. And in the 13-14 Boys 50m but­ter­fly, Shi­an Grif­fith won his sec­ond medal, an­oth­er sil­ver, in 26.67, with Grena­da’s Ja­cob Col­ly­more tak­ing gold in 26.07 and the Cay­man Is­lands’ Lev Fahy tak­ing bronze in 26.69.

Dim­itri Phillip added a bronze in the 11-12 boys 50m but­ter­fly in 29.63 to trail Ba­hami­an Dex­ter Rus­sell, who won gold in 2u.97, while Aruban Le­an­dro Santi­este­ban earned sil­ver in 28.51.

T&T is try­ing to win its first Carif­ta Aquat­ics ti­tle since 2010 in 2010 in Kingston, Ja­maica, to keep hold of the ti­tle won a year ear­li­er in Sa­vane­ta, Aru­ba.

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, led by Nikoli Black­man, a three-time Com­mon­wealth Youth Games (CYG) gold medal win­ner, and Zarek Wil­son, who al­so won three medals at the CYG, and Car­ring­ton 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.