Daraine Luton, Freelance WriterDOMINIC LEE and Kendese Nangle were the top performers on yesterday's final day of the Tornadoes Swim Club Invitational swim meet at the National Stadium pool.
Lee was in smashing form as he set a new mark in the 11-and-over 400m individual medley and even though Nangle did not break any records, her performances heading into the Carifta Games in Barbados between April 6 and 9 were awesome.
In the boys' 13-and-over category, Lee, representing Tornadoes, swam 5:13.83 to better Brad Hamilton's old mark of 5:16.42. He also won the 100m breaststroke, 200m freestyle and 100m freestyle. He clocked 56.04 seconds in the 100 freestyle. 'Y' Speedos' Matthew Stewart (56.85) and teammate Garrick Robinson (57.15) rounded off the top three finishers.
In the 100m breaststroke, Lee returned 1:10.36 to win while Robinson (1:14.65) and Matthew Hilton (1:15.96) claimed the other medals.
SURPASSED 'AA' QUALIFICATION
Nangle, meanwhile, won the girls' 11-12 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke and was second in the 100m freestyle. She touched in 1:31.27 in winning the breaststroke, 2:52.15 in the backstroke and 1:06.72 in the freestyle where she was beaten by 'Y' Speedos Raynae Hall who did 1:06.37 to win the event. Both athletes surpassed the 'AA' qualification standard of 1:10.99 that is required for participation at the Carifta Games.
Meanwhile, David Bromfield, Matthew Chen and Prince Easton also turned in impressive performances ahead of the games. Bromfield, of 'Y' Speedos, won the boys' 11-12 100m freestyle in 1:06.20, ahead of teammate Prince, who stopped the clock at 1:07.38. Chen's 1:09.06 for third was just outside the AA standard of 1:08.59.
WATERED-DOWN FIELD
In the absence of Dominique Dawson due to illness, 'Y' Speedos' Taryn Bridgewater made good in a watered-down field to win the girls' 13-and-over 200m freestyle in 2:30.06. She was however no match for Tornadoes' Audette Lawrence in the 100m backstroke. Lawrence won that event in 1:21.10 while Bridgewater (1:21.16) and Nicole Chen (1:23.70) came in for second and third respectively.
Ramon James (1:06.07) won the boys' 100m backstroke for Tornadoes ahead of teammate Garrick Robinson (1:09.15). 'Y' Speedos' Ramon Walton, 1:11.72, came in third.
Walton, though, won the 13-and-over 100m backstroke in 2:29.71 while Matthew Hilton (2:41.90) and Stefan Brown (2:42.90) captured silver and bronze.
Another high point of the meet was Robert Marshall's blistering swim in the boys eight-and-under 50m freestyle. Representing 'Y' Speedos', Marshall produced a record-breaking 43.58 to win the event and erase Antoine Young's mark of 45.66.
The other record breakers were Brenna Roman, Octivia Gray and Stefani Webley. They all swam times that surpassed Nangle's 3:15.27 in the 10-and-under individual medley.
Roman, who won the event for Blue Seal, swam 3:04.27; Gray 3:05.92 and Webley 3:14.74.
At press time yesterday, 'Y' Speedos with 495 points had a 14-point lead over defending champions Tornadoes. Blue Seal were in third with 225.
