Sharks won the fifth annual Lightning Aquatics Relay Carnival, held on May 3 at the Rodney Heights Aquatic Centre in Gros Islet. Despite strong performances from CARIFTA medallists Sapphire Parks, Maya Andrew and Tyler Dantes, who kept Sea Jays competitive, Sharks emerged as champions among six clubs.
Sharks, wearing red, finished first with 787 points. Sea Jays followed with 720, while RR Aquatic placed third with 450 points. Hosts Lightning Aquatics were fourth with 326 points. Sharks girls scored 447 points, nearly 200 more than Sea Jays, while Sea Jays boys led their division with 472 points, just over 130 ahead of Sharks.
In the Under-11 division, Zoe Fortune, Kayla Rose Richard, Cristi-Anna Brown and Dominique Destang won three of four 100m relays: freestyle, butterfly, and medley. In the 15-and-over division, Olympic swimmer Mikaili Charlemagne, along with Mya Prospere, Cayla Benjamin and Isabella McLean, secured victories in both the 200m freestyle and 200m medley relays.
Parks and Andrew, with Jasmine Vigier, Khiara Hippolyte and Kai Chung, swept all four relays in the 11-14 division, winning the 200m freestyle, breaststroke, medley, and butterfly events. Parks also earned three individual gold medals.
Sea Jays boys excelled across all age groups. Miles Andrew, Tiago Nelson, Zev Steele and Tristan Charlemagne won the Under-11 freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly, and medley relays. Andrew also claimed five individual gold medals.
Dantes, Nathan Lewis, and Alec Alfred won the 11-14 boys 200m breaststroke, butterfly, and medley relays. Dantes also earned five individual gold medals. Caden Calderon and Henri-Christian Theobalds led Sharks to victory in the 200m freestyle relay.
Noah Dorville, Malik Peter, and Shemar James led Sea Jays to first place in the 200m freestyle, breaststroke, and medley relays. Ethan Hazell, Aaron Charles, Khalil Maraj and Jayce Daniel secured Lightning Aquatics’ win in the 200m butterfly relay.
Individually, Parks and Dantes set new national age-group short-course records. Parks improved her 11-12 100m freestyle time from 1:02.25 to 1:01.95. Dantes finished the 11-12 boys’ 50m backstroke in 29.90 seconds, surpassing Tristan Dorville’s 2019 record of 30.73.
