2018 CENTRAL AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN (CAC) GAMES
- Thursday, July 19th – Friday, August 3rd
- Barranquilla, Colombia
- Meet Site
- Entry Lists (men)
- Entry Lists (women)
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
- Live Results
Mexico unleashed fury in the pool on day 4 of the 2018 Central American & Caribbean (CAC) Games in Colombia. Winning 4 of the 7 events in the session, Mexican swimmers also took down 5 national records to make this a historic evening. The nation now leads the overall swimming medal table with 29 in all, 8 of them gold. The host nation of Colombia is right behind with 6 golds, while Alia Atkinson has single-handedly put Jamaica in 3rd place with her 3 golds thus far.
Mexico’s Melissa (Byanca) Rodriguez completed her trifecta of breaststroke wins, taking the women’s 200m race in a time of 2:25.60. Not only does that establish a new Games Record, but Rodriguez’s effort now checks-in as the new Mexican national record. The 23-year-old Penn State swimmer has now crushed new national records across the 50m, 100m and 200m while competing here in Barranquilla.
Teammate Andy Song crushed a new Mexican national record in the men’s 200m backstroke, winning the race in 1:59.95, also a new Games Record. In doing so, Song now represents the first Mexican male ever to cross the 2-minute threshold in the event. Prior to this competition, the Cal Bear’s personal best sat at the 2:01.68 he put up back in 2017.
Mexico continued its roll with Miriam Guevara‘s victory in the women’s 100m fly. Touching in 59.31, Guevara represented the only swimmer to delve into sub-minute territory. She was rewarded with a new Games Record, as well as a new Mexican national record. Of note, the previous Games Record was held by Bahamian Olympian Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace in 59.74 from 2010.
Venezuelan Isabella Paez finished with the 100m fly silver in 1:00.04 to continue her successful meet, while Jamaican breaststroking ace Alia Atkinson fired off a near-personal best for bronze. Atkinson rounded out the top 3 in a mark of 1:00.13, less than .2 off of her Jamaican national record of 59.95 from last year.
Additional Winners:
- Mexico’s mixed 4x100m freestyle relay cracked a new national record effort of 3:31.66 en route to gold, with lead-off Jorge Iga holding the fastest split of the entire field in 49.53.
- El Salvador’s Marcelo Acosta was victorious in the men’s 400m free event, clocking 3:50.61 fir a new meet record. His personal best rests ast the 3:48.82 he produced at the Rio Olympics. Of note, runner-up in the race here in Barranquilla was Mexico’s Jacobo Vargas, who touched in 3:51.52 for a new national record.
- Kristen Romano put Puerto Rico on the board with a win in the women’s 400m IM. As the only swimmer under the 4:50 threshold, Romano put up a winning time and new Games Record of 4:46.31, a mark just .15 off of her own national record registered earlier this month at the TYR Pro Swim in Columbus.
- The men’s 50m breast saw Panamanian swimmer Edgar Crespo surge to the wall first, earning gold in 27.56, a new Games Record.
