SINGAPORE, (CMC) – Trinidadian Christian Homer created history on Wednesday when he won the first medal for the English-speaking Caribbean at the Youth Olympics.
The Trinidad & Tobago swimmer struck gold in the Boys’ 50 metres backstroke to write his name into the history books, clocking 26.36 seconds to prevail by nine hundredths of a second over hometown kid Rainer Kai Wee Ng.
Kuwait’s Abdullah Altuwaini clocked 26.46 seconds to be third.
Homer had topped all entrants in a personal best and new 15-17 national record of 26.31 seconds to secure his passage into the final.
Meanwhile, his compatriot Cadell Lyons qualified for the Boys’ 50m butterfly after finishing second in 24.90 seconds in the first semi-final heat behind South Korea’s Gyucheol Chang, whose time was 24.63.
On the track, Odane Skeen of Jamaica finished qualifying with the second fastest time to progress to the A-Final.
Skeen clocked 10.63 seconds to win the second heat, but Britain’s David Bolarinwa pipped him for the fastest time by one-hundredth of a second.
Antigua & Barbuda’s Tahir Walsh also progressed to the A-Final, with the fifth fastest time of 10.89 to finish second behind Japan’s Masaki Nashimoto.