Nikoli Blackman of Marlins Swim Club established a new 11-12 boys national record in the 800 metres freestyle event on the opening night of the National Open Long Course Championships at the National Aquatic Centre in Balmain, Couva on Thursday evening.
The event was swimming as a Time Final with the gold being won by long-distance veteran Graham Chatoor of Marlins in 8:53.06 minutes
Blackman won silver in 9:23.30 to eclipse the 11-12 age group record of 9:29.06 set by Kael Yorke in 2013 while the bronze went to Delroy Tyrell of Tidal Wave Aquatics in 9:53.78.
The Chatoor siblings continued their long-distance dominance as Jada Chatoor won the girls equivalent in 9:26.70 erasing her 2017 meet record of 9:33.50.
The silver was won by her team-mate Zoe Anthony (9:55.69) with bronze going to Jade Foncette of Blue Dolphins (9:57.60).
In the preliminaries of the 100m butterfly, Kael Yorke of Tidal Wave Aquatics established a new meet record of 55.26 seconds, to surpass the 2012 mark of Cadell Lyons of 55.64.
More than 200 swimmers are competing in the meet which will conclude on Sunday, May 13th after it was brought forward from May 24-27.due to deadlines associated with the upcoming Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation (CCCAN) Championships for which this meet is the final qualifier.
The CCCAN Championships are scheduled for Aruba from June 29 - July 3.
The meet also serves as a FINA sanctioned qualifier for the Youth Olympic Games from October 6-18 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Barranquilla, Colombia from July 19 – August.
The action continued at Couva last night with the finals for the open 1500m freestyle, 200m individual medley, 100m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 200m breaststroke and 100m butterfly, together with medals for the 10 & Under 200m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 100m butterfly and 100m breaststroke.
Masters athletes competed in the 100m butterfly, 50m breaststroke and 100m backstroke before the open mixed and 10 & under mixed 4 x 100m freestyle relays took place.
