Kristin Julien of Areios Aquatechs continued her record breaking ways at the National Open Short Course Championships shattering a 23 year old mark in the 100m backstroke on Saturday evening.
Julien who broke the 50m back record on both Thursday and Friday sped to the wall in 1:03.74 to erase the 1993 100m backstroke open record of Sangeeta Puri of 1:04 68. This was just one of few national records that fell during Day 3, in what is proving to be a very fast National Aquatic Centre.
Amira Pilgrim won the open female 50m butterfly in 28.35 ahead of Julien (28.43). Pilgrim in the process erased her own 15-17 record of 28.51 which she set in July. The UTT athlete also went on to win the gold in the 50m breaststroke in a time of 34.46
Jeron Thompson of Atlantis Aquatics got to an early start breaking the 50m breaststroke 15-17 mark in the
prelims with a time of 28.66. In his silver medal finish in the afternoon finals session, Thompson set the bar higher for himself and future age groupers with a 28.32 clocking. The old 15-17 record was held by his teammate Abraham McLeod in 28.76. McLeod, now 24, won the open race in 27.49. Thompson also won a bronze on the night in the 50m butterfly in 25.68.
In Thompson-like fashion, Zarek Wilson of broke the 9-10 record in the 100m freestyle male in both the prelims and finals. The Blue Dolphins athlete clocked 1:01.96 in the preliminaries and further improved with a gold medal winning 1:00.18 in the final. Nikoli Blackman of Marlins won silver in 1:01.20. At the beginning of the day the Wilson held record was 1:02.37. At the end of the day it was the first time that any 10 & Under T&T swimmers went under 1:02 in 100m freestyle, and it happened three times in one day.
The duo continued their age group dominance with Wilson (1:09.13) edging Blackman (1:10.23) in the 100m butterfly. Wilson (36.76) and Blackman (41.01) went one two in 50m breaststroke later in the evening.
Jada Chatoor of Marlins won gold in the 400m Individual Medley in a new meet record of 5:19.86 surpassing the old time of Sabrina David of 5:21.18. Josiah Parag of Blue Dolphins won gold in the male equivalent in 5:03.43. Chatoor (J) also went on to win the 200m freestyle (2:11.37), with her record breaking brother Graham winning the male equivalent in 1:55.89.
Zoe Anthony of Marlins won double gold on the night in the 10 & Under 100m fly (1:15.21) and 50m breaststroke (40.24). Neishelah Caseman of Tidal Wave Aquatics was the victor in the 10 & Under 100m free (1:06.92).
Christian Awah of Blue Dolphins, who won the 50m backstroke (26.40) on Friday night, won gold in the 50m butterfly in 25.21. Arieos athlete Justin Samlalsingh clocked 58.93 in the 100m backstroke to take the gold. Arieos won the inaugural open mixed Medley relay, while Blue Dolphins won the 10 & Under equivalent.
The meet finishes today Sunday and will culminate in the presentation of awards and the crowning of the first ever National Open Short Course Championships Club Champion.
News courtesy of ASATT.
