By Paul-Andre Walker, Staff ReporterJAMAICA MAINTAINED their third-place position in the Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships at the National Stadium pool last night, tallying 445 points at press time.
Jamaica have been outrunning fourth-placed Dominican Republic, which made a late charge at the leaders to reach 260 points. Puerto Rico are out front on 644.5 points, followed by Trinidad and Tobago on 546..
Alia Atkinson continued to contribute chunks of points and medals to Jamaica's tally, pushing her gold medal haul to five. Atkinson snatched the 15-17 girls' 50 metre freestyle title from Puerto Rico's Coral Lopez in a time of 27.13 seconds.
Up to press time, she was slated to swim in the girls' 15-17 800-metre freestyle relay with an opportunity to take her tally to six gold medals.
After her 50-metre triumph the 15-year-old prodigy told The Gleaner she and her teammates have not yet produced their best despite the phenomenal results they've enjoyed.
"All the races that I've swum already have been sprints. The distance events that are really my forte come tomorrow and means we should be putting on our best performances come tomorrow," she said.
Jamaica also collected hardware in the 18 and over 50-metre freestyle for boys and girls with their Olympic qualifiers Jevon Atkinson and Angela Chuck getting third place with times of 23.76 seconds and 27.08 seconds respectively.
Chuck was impressed by the competition but thought that she performed admirably despite losing out.
"The girl beside me was moving but for me it was a good race. It was my best race this season because it was just one-tenth outside my personal best and that's faster than I was at this time last year," she said.
Jevon Atkinson wasn't sure where he was in terms of his fitness and said his achievements were merely an indication of where he will be come Olympic time.
"I've been having a great performance so far," he said. "I haven't been rested for this meet so I've just been watching my progression throughout the meet and I've been getting better and better."
Earlier in the day the synchronised swimming group enjoyed their second year of success at the Championships. Under-12 duet entrants Katherine Williams and Michelle-Ann Gabadon took the bronze medal behind the Netherland Antilles and Aruba while 13-15 duet entrants Stephanie Barrett and Jhaenelle Adams also held on to bronze behind the same teams.
