GUYANA finished fourth overall after amassing a whopping 28 medals, eight of which were gold, over the course of three days at the Goodwill Swim Meet, which concluded on Sunday night in Paramaribo Suriname.

According to the overall points table, Team Guyana finished on 582 points, behind overall winners Trinidad and Tobago (1470), Jamaica (986.5) and Suriname (940.5), but ahead of the Bahamas (414), Barbados (237.5), French Guiana (235.5), Curacao (120) and St. Lucia (29).

Of the 28 medals, 23 (six gold, five silver and 12 bronze) were won via the individual route and five (two gold, a silver and two bronze) were won through relays. 

Coach of the side, Shyka Gonsalves, lauded the national swimmers for their outstanding performances. “The overall performance was great. I am so proud of the swimmers. They performed at their best and we can only get stronger and faster from here. They all deserved to be welcomed and praised for their hard work.”

On Friday night the side, which included 39 swimmers, won seven medals while on Saturday the young swimmers won 12 medals and a nine more on Sunday.

Jaleel Anderson finished with the most gold medals for Team Guyana. He won two individual medals in the 11-12 Boys’ 50m and 100m freestyle races, while he also helped Guyana to the two overall relay gold medals.

In the relays, Anderson, Vladimir Woodroffe, Stephen Ramkelawan and Elliott Gonsalves teamed up to win gold in the 4x100m Medley and the 4x400m.

In the 4x400m relay, the quartet stormed to first place in 4:58.62.  That time was almost nine seconds ahead of Suriname, who finished second.

On the final day, Athalcy Hunte won her second gold medal. The 12-year-old, who won gold in the 11-12 100m backstroke on Friday evening, added gold in the 50m backstroke.  Hunte also won a bronze in the 200m freestyle, while her age division mate Monique Watson won a bronze in the 50m backstroke.

Meanwhile, Gonsalves, who had won gold in the 200m IM on Saturday, added two silver to his medal tally on the final day, when he swam in the 11-12 Boys’ 200m freestyle race and the 100m butterfly.. The 100m backstroke gold medal winner Woodroffe also gained a silver medal when he swam in the 50m backstroke.

The boys (Anderson, Woodroffe, Ramkelawan and Gonsalves) swam their way to a silver medal in the 4x50m 11-12 Boys’ category, while the 13-14 Girls (Maiya Ifill, Giselle Crane, Nikita Peters and Amber De Goeas) won a 4x50m relay bronze.

Shareefah Lewis also copped a medal on the final day, when she finished third in the 50m backstroke in the 9-10 age division.