-Gonsalves, Watson and Woodroffe end in top three of age division

DORADO Speed Swim Club finished fifth out of 28 teams that competed at the Amateur Swimming Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ASATT) Individual Swimming Championships, which concluded on Saturday evening at the National Aquatic Centre in Couva.

The ace Guyanese club finished with 270.5 points, half a point behind St. Vincent and the Grenadine’s top club, Black Sands Swim Squad.

Guyana had four none-Dorado swimmers (Leon Seaton, Andrew Fowler, Fitzroy Thom and Andrew Jordan), who swam under the banner of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association as Guyana Combined and they tallied 18 points for a 24th overall finish, while US-based second generation Guyanese, Chase Thompson, represented the Dolphin Speed Swim Club (nine points, 27th position).

Dorado, which was represented by 13 swimmers, was impressive in the 11-12 age group division. Elliott Gonsalves finished second, while his teammate, Vladimir Woodroffe, placed third. On the distaff side, Monique Watson placed third.

FINAL NIGHT
On the final night, Dorado surged to eight individual medals: two gold, three silver and three bronze along with one relay gold.

Gonsalves, who won gold in the 200M butterfly on the opening day, gold in the 200M breaststroke on night two, and a gold in the 400M Individual Medley (IM) on night three, along with two silver medals (50M Breast and 200M Freestyle), finished with another first place, this time in the 200M IM.

In that event, he clocked 2:27.42 to beat his closest rival by over seven seconds. Woodroffe had placed third in a time of 2:35.78 in that race.
Gonsalves’ other individual medals on the final day was in the 100M Backstroke (1:10.04) and 100M Breaststroke (1:17.99). In both events, he won silver. At the meet, Gonsalves, Woodroffe and Stephen Ramkhelawan also helped Dorado to three relay gold medals (4X100M Freestyle, 4X50M Freestyle, and 4X50M Medley Relay). Dorado also used Tyrell Allicock in one of the relays and Alex Bentham in two.

Woodroffe, on the other hand, started off with a bang on the opening day. He won gold in the 1500M and a silver in the 50M Backstroke. On day three, he won two gold medals (200M Back and 800M Freestyle), before winning bronze in the 200M IM and bronze in the 400M Freestyle (4:55.33s) on the final day.

Stephen Ramkhelawan had placed fourth in the 400M Freestyle in a time of 4:57.99.
Watson was also outstanding over the four days. She won gold on day one (400M IM), a silver on day two (200M Breaststroke) and a silver in the 200M Backstroke on day three. On the final day, she added a bronze medal to her tally. In the 400M Freestyle, she finished third in a time of 5:22.32. Watson finished fourth in the 100M Backstroke in a time of 1:16.53.

Along with Gonsalves, Daniel Scott also won gold on the final night. The 18-year-old dominated the Men’s 15-and-over 400M Freestyle event. He clocked 4:25.03, which was almost nine seconds faster than the second place finisher.
Athalcy Hunte copped a silver medal in the Girls’ 11-12 100M Backstroke after finishing in a time of 1:15.89s.

The final medal of the day was by the dominant boys’ 11-12 relay team. Woodroffe, Ramkhelawan, Bentham and Gonsalves captured gold number three. The quartet clocked 1:58.01, over five seconds faster than the competitive Black Sails’ ‘A’ team.

Meanwhile, 14-year-old Seaton just missed the podium for Guyana Combined in the 50M Freestyle. The ace swimmer placed fourth in a time of 25.58s in the 13-14 age division. His teammate at the meet, Andrew Fowler (23-years), placed seventh in a time of 25.27s in the 15-and-over division.