CARIFTA 2024 Swimming Update - Days 1 & 2

Skyelar Richards copped Jamaica’s first gold medal in the 50M Backstroke with a winning time of 31.57. Team Jamaica continued it’s performance in the pool with podium finishes from Kia Alert in the 11-12 Girls 200M breaststroke winning Bronze and Kai Radcliffe in the 13-14 Boys 200M breaststroke placing second in a close finish behind Agard, Alejandro from Trinidad and Tobago. 

Leanna Wainwright and Carolyn Levy Powell secured their spot in the finals of the 50M backstroke with Wainwright placing second and Powell fifth. 

In the boys 15-17 age group Malcolm McKenzie narrowly touched the wall ahead of Antoine Destang of St. Lucia securing Bronze in the 50M backstroke. 

In 100 M butterfly series, Arush Rochlani placed 3rd in the boys 13-14 with a personal best of 1:07. 92. In the girls 18 and over Sabrina Lynn won Gold clocking 1:00.92 which is a personal best. 

First night of relays were exciting for spectators. The boys 15-17 4x 100 freestyle relay team of Brady Lewison, Benjamin Davis,Malcolm McKenzie and Nelson Denny placed 3rd in a timely of  3:34.87, a new national age group record breaking the previous record of 3:37.72 set back in 31/03/2018. 

The girls and boys 13-14 4x 100 freestyle relay teams made it on the podium after securing the silver in this event.

Day 2 

Jamaica secured it’s second gold medal on night two in the 11-12 girls where Kia Alert finished with the number one spot in the 50M Butterfly with a Personal best of 30.75. This was followed by our third gold medal with Skyelar Richards from the 13-14 age group clocking 29:45 in the same event. 

Sabrina Lynn placed second in this event in the 18 and over girls age group.

In the boys 13-14 200M freestyle Jamaica’s Noland Barrett copped the gold and Matthew Kennedy the bronze in this event. 

Our medal count continued on night two with Skyelar Richards easing into the bronze medal position in the girls 13-14 100M backstroke in a time of 1:11.40 another personal best. Jamaica’s top backstroker Leanna Wainwright finished third in this event for the 15-17 girls. 

13-14 boys 400M medley relay narrowly missed the gold placing second behind Trinidad and Tobago completing our medal tally for day 2. 

Other finalists over the first two days:

Day 1 

50M backstroke 

Kai Lawson 7th

Jessica Denniston 6th 

Lia Forrester finished 4th 

100M butterfly 

Alexandria Cogle 5th

Noah Parker 8th   

Noland Barrett 4th 

Matthew Kennedy 6th 

Christanya Shirley 8th

Malcolm McKenzie 6th

Day 2 

200M freestyle 

Kia Alert 6th 

Arush Rochlani 4th

Alexandria Cogle 4th

 50M butterfly 

Kai Lawson 5th

Arush Rochlani 5th

Noah Parker 7th

Jessica Denniston 6th 

Noland Barrett 6th 

Kai Radcliffe 8th

Christanya Shirley 7th 

Malcolm Mackenzie 5th

Brady Lewison 7th 

400M IM 

Matthew Kennedy 5th 

Relays 

4x100M Medley Relays 

13-14 Girls 5th

15-17 girls 5th

15-17 boys 6th

Two more days left of competition and we are ready to add to our medal count.