National swimmers return from successful UANA Swimming Cup

Antigua and Barbuda’s National Swim Team is scheduled to return from
Lima, Peru on Tuesday after participating in the UANA Swimming Cup hosted by Union Americana de Natacion (UANA). The event was held at The Videna Aquatic Complex, February 21st – 23rd, 2020.

Leading the team’s stellar performance was Tivon Benjamin who returned home with
one gold and one bronze medal in 100 metre freestyle and 50 metre butterfly respectively.
Swimming in the Boys 11 – 12 age-group, Tivon also delivered top-ten performances, and
personal best times, in each of the six events that he swam. His gold-medal time of 56.98 in the100 metre freestyle also gave him the new National Age Group Record (NAGR), and was his third NAGR record for the meet; the first being in the 400 metre freestyle where he posted a time of 4:42.52, and the other in the 100 metre backstroke with a time of 1:09.78.

Thrilling performances were also delivered by the other members of the team,
including a AAA (triple-A) qualifying time by Sydnee Hessee in Girls 11 – 12 50 metre freestyle.
Sydnee’s time of 30.25 is the first step for her to qualify for the upcoming Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) Championships to be held later this year – a meet which requires two AAA times for participation. Teammate Angelique Gittens swam to a personal best and new NAGR with a time of 1:09.34 in the Girls 13 – 14 100 metre butterfly event and secured a personal best of 2:22.05 in the 200 meter freestyle. She also secured her second AAA time, and CCCAN qualification, with a 31.33 in the 50 metre butterfly.

Tony Goodwin, swimming in the Boys 13 – 14 age-group, delivered personal best times
in seven of the eight events that he swam, missing some AAA qualifying times by mere
hundredths of a second in some cases. This puts him in a good position to secure his CCCAN qualifying times in the upcoming National Swimming Championships hosted by the Antigua and Barbuda Swimming Federation (ABSF) at the Vipers Aquatic Facility in Langfords, February 28th to March 1st.

Although Team Captain Olivia Fuller and teammate Selah Wilthsire fell ill during the
meet, they both persevered and delivered brave performances in the pool, with Selah achieving a personal best in the 100 meter breaststroke and a top-ten performance in the 50 meter breaststroke.

Speaking of the swimmers’ performances, Head Coach Nelson Molina said, “I am
extremely pleased by the focus that the swimmers had for this meet and I am proud of their performances. I would like to congratulate Tivon on his excellent medal performances and theentire team on a job well done. They competed against the best and they did extremely well.”

Adding to that praise was ABSF President Derek Marshall who said, “I would like to
congratulate the entire team for their excellent performances. We fielded a small, young team but they delivered, and they represented Antigua and Barbuda with pride. It should be noted that the UANA Cup is a premier meet in the hemisphere with strong representation from the likes of Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.”

Team Manager Anjanette Wiltshire echoed the President’s congratulations and thanked
the team and the Federation for the opportunity, saying, “It was an absolute pleasure to
manage such a fantastic bunch of athletes. Challenges aside, they all stayed focused and did what they were there to do. I would like to thank them for their professionalism and
congratulate them on a job well done. I would also like to thank the supporters and officials
who traveled to Peru to support the swimmers and the meet. It all made for a fantastic
experience.”

Local swimming action continues with the 7th National Swimming Championships, February, 28th to March 1st, 2020 at the Viper’s Aquatic Facility located at Langfords.

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