National records fall at Carifta Aquatics Championships
Published:Sunday | April 20, 2025 | 12:12 AMGregory Bryce - Staff Reporter
Jamaica’s Skyelar Richards and Carolyn Levy-Powell both recorded new national records yesterday at Trinidad and Tobago’s National Aquatic Centre, to open day one action of the 2025 Carifta Aquatic Championships.
The two swimmers had terrific starts to the opening of the championships as Richards recorded a new mark of 29.89 seconds in the girls’ 13-14 age group 50-metre backstroke preliminaries, before lowering the record once again to 29.87 in the final.
Levy-Powell’s recording-breaking performance came in the girls’ 15-17 50-metre backstroke preliminaries, stopping the clock in 29.77.
Richards was a cut above the rest in her age group, as she finished ahead of teammate Jessica Denniston who raced to 31.54, and Curacao’s Gabrielle Johannes-Maduro, 31.76, in qualifying for the final.
Richards not only erased her old national age group record of 30.75, she also wrote her name in Carifta history as she set a new championship record.
She eclipsed the old mark of 30.19 set by Lila Higgo of the Cayman Islands in 2022.
In the event’s final during the afternoon session, Richards fulfilled on the promise she showed in the preliminaries as she took the gold medal in a time of 29.87, shattering the record she had set earlier in the day.
Lia Pollitt of Curacao took the silver medal in 31.84 while Denniston rounded off Jamaica’s medals in the final, taking the bronze in 31.85.
ERASING RECORDS
For Levy-Powell, her performance saw her not only erasing the girls’ 15-17 national age group record, but also erasing the senior national record as well.
Despite finishing second overall in the preliminaries with a time of 29.77, Levy-Powell erased Leanna Wainwright’s previous age-group record of 30.10.
She also just dipped under the senior national record of 29.78 held by Alia Atkinson.
The Carifta Championship record, however, eluded Levy-Powell’s grasp as Trinidad’s Zuri Ferguson set a new mark of 29.23 in her preliminaries, qualifying first overall and erasing Higgo’s previous record of 29.51.
Levy-Powell could not improve on her time in the final as she copped the silver medal in a time of 29.82.
She finished behind Ferguson who, for the second time yesterday, broke the Carifta record as she took home gold in 29.18.
Action continues in the pool tomorrow with the morning session set to begin at 8 a.m. with the girls’ 11-12 age group 200m freestyle preliminaries.