Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter
JAMAICA'S SMALL team to the Caribbean Island Swimming Championships in Puerto Rico claimed seven medals on the first day of competition on Monday.
Thus far, the Jamaicans have garnered two gold and five bronze medals after they ended the first day on 64 points and were in sixth position.
Brad Hamilton led the way with two medals, mining gold in the boys' 15-17 100-metre freestyle in a time of 53.01 seconds. Raul Martinez of Puerto Rico was second, followed by Jules Graham of Trinidad and Tobago.
Hamilton was again in medal-winning form when he was third in the 50m butterfly behind record swimming performances from Vereance Burrows of the Bahamas, who won in 25.39 seconds, and Juan Serrano (25.72) who also went below Shawn Clarke's 2004 record of 25.87 seconds.
Jamaica's other gold medal came from 11-year-old Kendese Nangle, who outswam Puerto Rico's Diana Amaro (1:13.30) in the girls' 11-12 100m backstroke in one minute, 11.88 seconds.
Ramon Walton (5:05.76) was one of Jamaica's five bronze medal winners after he finished the boys' 13-14 400m individual medley behind Trinidad and Tobago's Christian Homer (4:55.03) and Puerto Rico's Christian Bayo (5:02.06).
David Bromfield (1:12.79) also did Jamaica proud in the 11-12 100m backstroke, finishing third behind St. Lucia's Christian Wayne (1:09.88) and Suriname's Glenn Gomerts (1:11.12).
BRONZE MEDAL
In the boys' 11-12 100m free-style Steven Moodie (1:02.60) notched another bronze medal for the Jamaicans, with Puerto Rico's Javier Solivan (1:00.14) and the Netherland Antilles' Fiorgean Winklaar (1:00.58) hitting the wall ahead of him.
Puerto Rico's Debra Rodriguez's championship record swim of 29.92 seconds, followed closely by Suriname's Nishani Cicilson 30.28 - which was also lower than the previous record of 30.42 set by Puerto Rico's Wilmarie Velez in 2004, relegated Jamaica's Dominique Dawson (30.53) to a bronze medal in the girls 13-14 50-metre butterfly.
At the end of the first day, Puerto Rico had taken up pole position in the combined scores with 309 points and were followed by Trinidad and Tobago with 201
The Bahamas were third with 144. The Netherland Antilles with 72 and the Dominican Republic with 70 were the teams ahead of Jamaica.
The competition will continue until June 30 and the Jamaica team returns home on July 1.
