MONDAY, JUNE 25: Jesse Washington led the way with two golds for Bermuda at the Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships in Aruba.
Washington’s two golds were part of Bermuda’s nine-medal haul on Sunday.
Lisa Blackburn got Bermuda on the podium early in the 400 individual medley. Her time of 5:11.83 crushed the national record of 5:26.63 set in 1990 by Jenny Smatt. Blackburn ran away from the competition and took the gold medal.
Julian Fletcher followed Blackburn in the 400 IM swimming 4:59.35 on his way to the bronze medal.
Shannon Hassell continued her strong backstroke swimming with her 100 back final. She was in second on the first lap, taking the lead at the turn. After hitting the lane line several times she was touched out at the finish by 4 hundredths of a second, finishing with the silver medal.
Washington has added the 100 back to his list of events and was able to charge his way to a silver medal in the event.
Philip Hagen swam in his first CISC final and finished in eighth place in the 200 free. Next up was Ashley Yearwood in the 100 free where she finished in 1:00.00 and fifth place.
She was followed by Rebecca Heyliger in the 100 free, who swam 1:01.39 for fourth place. Roy-Allan Burch added a little excitement in the 100 free as he almost missed his race. After a mix up he had to run to the blocks as they called out the names. He calmly raced to 52.45, his best in season as he captured the silver medal.
Washington was next in the 100 free where he surpassed his Carifta performance by swimming 56.36, which is a new CISC record, and won the race by three seconds.
Once the 50 fly events started Bermuda racked up the medals.
Rebecca Heyliger swam 29.63 to take the bronze medal.
Then Burch was in a battle in his fly where he came fourth, missing the bronze by four hundredths of a second while still lowering his national record from the morning heats.
Ashley Yearwood followed on with the silver medal in her age group with a 29.42.
Washington was Bermuda’s last swimmer for the night and he saved another special swim. He won the race by one second and set a new CISC and Bermuda age group record with a 27.86.
Bermuda captured nine medals, two National records, one age-group record and two CISC records.