-says National Swim coach after IGG swim loss

SURINAME retained their Inter Guiana Games (IGG) swimming title following a dominant performance at the National Aquatic Centre yesterday.
The Suriname side finished with 268 points to Guyana’s 195,winning both male and female categories after all 24 events were finished. The home team’s defeat came despite a 6 medal-haul from Olympian Hannibal Gaskin,who won 4 individual gold and 2 silver medals in the team events. It also came despite great efforts by the George sisters,Jadyn and Danielle.
The Suriname side looked completely in charge as 8 swimmers took home gold in more than one race with head hunters 16 year old male/female duo,Juan Limburg and Anjali Rahan ,copping five gold medals each.
Limburg was seemingly unstoppable,winning the Boys 50m Breaststroke, 50m Freestyle, 100m Breaststroke, 200m Medley Relay and 200m Freestyle Relay.
For Rahan, it was wins in the Girls 100m Backstroke, 100m Butterfly, 50m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly and 200m Medley Relay,that saw her completing a well-rounded performance.
IGG veteran Valery Amstelveen took home four gold medals and was accompanied by teammate Enrico Molly who also had four gold medals in his events. For Amstelveen,it was finishes in the Girls 50m Breaststroke, 100m Freestyle, 200m Medley Relay and 200m Freestyle Relay. Molly achieved his golds with wins in the 100m Backstroke, 200m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke and 200m Medley Relay.
On the Guyanese end, Hannibal finished first in the 200m individual medley with a time of (2:23:26s), as well as first in the 100m Butterfly (1:00:56s) but did not beat his personal best. He also won the 50m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle. It was the 200m Medley Relay and 200m Freestyle Relay where he picked up his silver medals.
Guyana’s other gold medal came from Jadyn George who won the Girls 200m Freestyle with her sister Danielle coming second in the same event. The sisters also finished second and third in the 50m Long course Freestyle event where Rahan finished first. The sister’s showed that they were swimmers to keep an eye on.
Meanwhile, Suriname continued its gold sweep with Tatjana Graanoogst and Charissa Brown,who each claimed three gold medals,with the former winning the Girls 200m IM, 200m Medley Relay and 200m Freestyle Relay. The latter won the Girls 100m Breaststroke, 200m Medley Relay and 200m Freestyle Relay. Rounding out the gold medal count was Jair Telting, Wendell Zinhagel, Marion Soeradi, Unique Soestosenojo and Roche Veldkamp,who won one gold each.
According to National Coach Sean Baksh “This was a measuring stick of where are now as a team, we can only work from here.” The next event on the swimming calendar is the National Schools Championships(Nationals)in November.