Record medals tally for Saint Lucia at CARIFTA Aquatics

The Saint Lucia swim team went from strength to strength at the CARIFTA Aquatics Championships in Martinique, earning a record 14 medals, one more than last year. The four-day competition ended on Tuesday, April 7, at the Pierre Samot Community Aquatic Centre.

Sapphire Parks also showed progress, winning the 11-12 girls’ title again and raising her medal count from eight last year to ten this year. She finished strong, earning gold in the 100m breaststroke (1:21.23) and silver in the 200m backstroke (2:38.13). Her final total was five gold, four silver, and one bronze, with 88 points overall.

“So, my performance today, in the first three events that I did, I didn’t really PB [personal best] as much as I wanted to,” she said after Monday’s events. “But in the last event [200m individual medley] that I’m really proud of right now, I dropped a lot of time, and that made me really happy. It made up for the rest.”

Saint Lucia’s medal count included a gold for Tyler Dantes, two silvers for Antoine Destang, and a bronze for Maya Andrew. Last year, the team earned four gold, four silver, and five bronze medals. Saint Lucia finished 12th overall with 156 points, while The Bahamas won the team title with 795.

On the last night, Parks finished fifth in the 400m freestyle final. Destang placed fourth in the 15-17 boys’ 50m freestyle and the 15-17 boys team was eighth in the 200m freestyle relay. 

Dylan Corcoran ended eighth in the 11-12 boys’ 100 breast. Dantes came eighth in the 11-12 boys’ 50m freestyle and took sixth in the 200m backstroke, improving his time by 10 seconds. Fayth Jefferey narrowly missed qualifying for the 15-17 100m breaststroke finals.