Nearly 200 swimmers took part, but Sea Jays Swim Club stood tall at the end of the 2026 OceanSpray Short Course National Swimming Championships. The host team won the combined team title at the Rodney Heights Aquatic Centre, finishing with 1,360 points.Â
Sharks Swim Club placed second with 967.5 points, and Rodney Heights Aquatic Club stunned their rivals to end third with 468. RR Aquatic Swim Club were fourth with 426, Lightning Aquatics fifth with 390.5, Southern Flying Fish sixth with 183 points, and Emerald Aquatics, a guest team from the Commonwealth of Dominica, seventh with 121.
Sea Jays took the boys division with 813 points, ahead of Sharks on 370.50 points and Rodney Heights Aquatic Club on 306 points. Sharks won the girls division with 597 points, followed by Sea Jays on 547 points and RR Aquatic on 198 points.
As is her wont, Sapphire Parks of Sea Jays dominated. Of the seven age-group records set over the weekend, she was responsible for five, all in the 11-12 girls category. The CARIFTA Aquatics champion scored 99 individual points, winning all 11 of her events.Â
Parks set new times in the 200-metre freestyle (2:13.50), 50-metre backstroke (30.65 seconds), and 100-metre backstroke (1:07.92). She also broke two marks previously held by Fayth Jeffrey, recording 4:48.08 in the 400-metre freestyle to lower the 2021 record of 4:50.76, and 2:32.32 in the 200-metre individual medley to lower the 2022 mark of 2:33.75.
Two records fell in the 11-12 boys division. Jayce Daniel of Lightning Aquatics won the 400 free in 4:36.61, breaking the time of 4:39.68 set by Jamarr Archibald in 2015. Tyler Dantes of Sea Jays set a new mark in the 50 back with a time of 29.57 seconds, lowering his previous time of 29.90 seconds. Dantes won the group with 84 points, while Daniel finished second on 55 points.
In the under-9 class, RR Aquatic won both individual titles. Kaelah Octave took the girls section with 63 points, and Liam Charlemagne the boys with 61 points. In the 9-10 division, Amber Francois of Sea Jays won the girls title with 75 points. Zoe Fortune of Sharks was second on 72. Miles Andrew of Sea Jays won the boys division with 72 points, ahead of Andrew Charlemagne of RR Aquatic on 54.
In the 13-14 group, unattached swimmer Caden Calderon won the boys category with 97 points. Nathan Lewis of Sea Jays was second on 66. Aniyah George of Sea Jays won the girls division with 69, followed by clubmate Jaimie Devaux on 58.
In the 15-17 category, Bella Delaire of Rodney Heights Aquatic Club won the girls section with 73 points, finishing ahead of Kayla-Marise Inglis of Sharks on 72. Jayden Xu of Sea Jays won the boys division with 88 points, ahead of Noah Dorville on 77. In the 18-plus group, Mikaili Charlemagne of Sharks and Shemar James of Sea Jays each won all of their entered races to finish on 54 points.
“The meet was fantastic. We had about 190-something swimmers swimming for our 14th annual Ocean Spray swimming championships,” said Denise Parks, acting president of Sea Jays. “We really had a lot of our swimmers drop in time from all clubs. It was interesting to see RHAC as well coming in third. This is why our Sea Jays host meets, to really bring out the performances in swimmers. I mean, they really work hard during the summer, and it’s a championship that they were looking forward to.
“Year-on-year, Sea Jays’ championship is building. It’s exciting. The swimmers are excited for this event. They’re excited to make times for OECS. Our sponsors are really getting onboard, and understanding what swimming is really about. I mean, it is a sport that we see our youth really enjoy and something that they want to grow into and perform outside of Saint Lucia, and that’s what they’re looking forward to: to swim at the highest level.”
The competition served as a qualifier for the Saint Lucia Aquatics Federation ahead of team selection for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Swimming Championships, which Saint Lucia will host next month.
