CARIFTA UPDATE – SWIMMING – Simmons, Ashby, Stoddard secure gold; Greenidge gets silver

The name Jaiya Simmons is on the tongue of swimming enthusiasts and deservingly so, as the 12-year-old Barbadian has added three more gold medals to her overall tally of six, after day two of the ongoing 35th CARIFTA Swimming Championship.

Simmons, a member of Pirates Swim Club, is as impressive as it gets with her performances at that level, as she secured three gold medals in the 50m butterfly, 400m individual medley and a relay gold in the 4x100m medley relay.

That is inclusive of her gold medals earned on the opening day of competition, on Saturday, in the 50m backstroke, 100m butterfly and the 4x100m freestyle relay.

In the Girls 11 to 12 butterfly, Simmons secured the top podium finish in 30.74 seconds but it was just off the 30.69 seconds national record she registered during heat one of the preliminaries on Saturday morning.
The previous Barbados record of 30.80 seconds was set by Asa Dunwoody.

Simmons then produced two other gold medals showing in the 11 to 12 Girls 100m backstroke in 1:11.14 ahead of Violet Smith who produced a 1:11.88 time for silver.

Barbadian Tariq Greenidge secured the silver medal in Boys 11 to 12 age group of the 100m backstroke in 1:07.68 and was just beaten to the wall by Cayman Islands Luke Higgo in 1:07.60 for the victory.

It has so far been one of the most incredible showings at the CARIFTA Swimming, from Simmons in particular, as she secured her fifth gold medal in the 400m individual medley. The young upcoming talent recorded 5:31.37 to win the event.

Unfortunately, fellow Barbadian Zachary Burke missed out on a podium finish in that event as he clocked a fourth-place finish of 1:15.95 behind bronze medalist Lev Fayh 1:14.76 for the Cayman Islands.

Speaking of the boys 11 to 12, Victor Ashby wrote his name on the 50m butterfly gold medal in 28.82 seconds.

Adara Stoddard who captured Barbados’ first gold medal of the night – and in so doing made her mother Sharon Small, manager of the Barbados CARIFTA Swim team very proud – earned another gold last night in the Girls 15 to 17 400m individual medley.

Stoddard, one of the strongest if not the strongest swimmer in that age group for females, won in 5:20.87. (ML)