Donahue and the 18-and-over boys 400m medley relay quartet captured gold, as T&T enjoyed a relatively quiet night on the medal rostrum on the penultimate day of swimming at the 28th Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica, on Thursday. The US-based Donahue, who won gold in the 15-17 girls 100m breaststroke in 1:14.01 and bronze in the 200m IM (2: 29.74), improved her haul to three when she touched the wall first in the 50m breaststroke in 34.16 seconds ahead of Bahamian Laura Morley (35.64) and Dominican Republic’s Vanessa Rivas (35.73), while the other T&T swimmer to reach the final, Johnnya Ferdinand, was eighth in 36.96. T&T also kept hold of the title in the 18-and-over boys 400m medley relay after they won in three minutes, 57.94 seconds to beat Guatemala (4:03.34) and Costa Rica (4:08.64) into silver and bronze, respectively.
There were also two silver swims from Abraham Mc Leod and Jeron Thompson on the night, while Samantha Rahael picked up her fourth bronze. Mc Leod, who won the 18-and-over boys 100m breaststroke in one minute, 04.17 seconds on Monday ahead of Panama’s Edgar Casper (1:04.25) and home-town swimmer Jose Montoya (1:08.66) was second this time to Crespo (28.73) in the 50m breaststroke in 28.84, while Andrei Kulyk of Nicaragua got bronze in 29.59, and T&T’s Strasser Sankar, fifth, in 31.48. Thompson, meanwhile, was second in the 11-12 boys 50m breaststroke in 35.62, behind Barbadian winner Luis Sebastien Weekes (35.08) while Aruban Daniel Jacobs got third, in 35.72. Rahael got another bronze, this time, in the 18-and-over 400m freestyle in four minutes, 41.17, to trail El Salvadorean champion Pamela Benites (4:28.35) and Barbadian Lani Cabrera who took second in 4:34.16. She previously got bronze in the 200m IM (2:28.82), 100m breaststroke (1:18.91) and 200m freestyle (2:13.41)
With only last night’s finals left to complete the swiimming segment of the championships, Venezuela continued to lead with 898.5 points followed by host Costa Rica (551), Guatemala (410), Honduras (359) and T&T with 354.5. The Venezuelans also enjoyed a comfortable lead on the medal table with 81 (37 gold, 23 silver, 21 bronze) followed by T&T with 27 (13 gold, six silver, eight bronze), Guatemala withn 24 (nine gold, eight silver, seven bronze) and Aruba with 25, eight gold, ten silver and seven bronze. Going into last night, the T&T team faced a huge task to try and improve on its third-place finish two years ago in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, when it earned a record gold medal haul of 22 in their 51-medal tally, which also included 19 silver and ten bronze for 622 points to trail champions Puerto Rico (1029.5 pts) and Mexico (997.5).
Other T&T CCCAN swim results:
Jessie Changar: 11-12 girls 50m breaststroke - 8th - 38.69 secs
Jabari Baptiste 15-17 boys 200m backstroke - 5th - 2:16.17
11-12 girls 800m freestyle relay - 7th - 10:03.83
CCCAN Medal table after day one (86 events)
Teams Gold Silver Bronze Total
1. Venezuela 37 23 21 81
2. T&T 13 6 8 27
3. Guatemala 9 8 7 24
4. Aruba 8 10 7 25
5. El Salvador 7 2 3 12
6. Honduras 6 10 10 26
7. Costa Rica 5 15 14 34
8. Bahamas 5 6 5 16
9. Cuba 5 4 4 13
10. Dominican Republic 5 3 4 12
11. Bermuda 5 2 3 10
12. Barbados 4 11 9 24
13. Panama 3 9 4 16
14. Netherlands Antilles 2 1 0 3
15. St Lucia 0 1 1 2
16. US Virgin Islands 0 1 1 2
17. Nicaragua 0 0 6 6
18. Jamaica 0 0 5 5
CCCAN Points table after day one (26 events)
1. Venezuela - 898.5 pts
2. Costa Rica - 551
3. Guatemala - 410
4. Honduras - 359
5. T&T - 354.5
6. Aruba - 330.5
7. Barbados - 307
8. Bahamas - 236.5
9. Panama - 203
10. El Salvador - 149
11. Bermuda - 147
12. Cuba - 119
13. Dominican Republic - 118
14. US Virgin Islands - 60
15. Nicaragua - 57
16. Jamaica - 53.5
17. St Lucia - 42
18. Netherlands Antilles - 37.5
19. Antigua & Barbuda - 8