On May 3, the Rodney Heights Aquatic Centre in Gros Islet played host to the highly anticipated fifth annual Lightning Aquatics Relay Carnival, where six competitive local swim clubs gathered to battle for the top title. After a full day of intense, fast-paced races across multiple age divisions, it was Sharks Swim Club that emerged as the overall tournament champions, outperforming a strong field of competitors to claim the crown.
In the final team standings, Sharks, sporting their signature red team uniforms, secured first place with a cumulative total of 787 points. Runner-up honors went to Sea Jays, who finished just 67 points behind with 720 total points, a impressive performance anchored by several standout CARIFTA medallists. Third place went to RR Aquatic, who racked up 450 points to round out the top three, while event hosts Lightning Aquatics took fourth position with 326 points. When broken down by gender division, Sharks’ female athletes delivered a dominant showing, scoring 447 points – nearly 200 points ahead of the second-place Sea Jays girls’ squad. On the men’s side, Sea Jays claimed the division lead, posting 472 points, a margin of just over 130 points ahead of Sharks’ boys team.
Competition across age divisions brought no shortage of breakout performances and unexpected upsets. In the Under-11 girls’ bracket, a team of Zoe Fortune, Kayla Rose Richard, Cristi-Anna Brown and Dominique Destang took home three out of four possible gold medals in 100m relay events, clinching top spots in freestyle, butterfly, and medley. For the oldest division, open to swimmers 15 and older, Olympic-qualified swimmer Mikaili Charlemagne teamed up with Mya Prospere, Cayla Benjamin and Isabella McLean to secure wins in both the 200m freestyle and 200m medley relays, showcasing the elite level of talent at the event.
For the 11-14 age group, CARIFTA medallists Sapphire Parks and Maya Andrew joined forces with Jasmine Vigier, Khiara Hippolyte and Kai Chung to pull off a rare clean sweep, winning all four relay events on the schedule: 200m freestyle, breaststroke, medley, and butterfly. Parks added to her medal haul by also taking home three individual gold medals, solidifying her status as one of the event’s most impressive competitors.
Sea Jays’ male swimmers turned in a standout performance across every age division, pushing Sharks to the final wire for the overall title. In the Under-11 boys’ division, the foursome of Miles Andrew, Tiago Nelson, Zev Steele and Tristan Charlemagne swept all four relay events, winning freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly, and medley. Andrew matched Parks’ individual success, claiming five gold medals in individual races. In the 11-14 boys’ bracket, CARIFTA medallist Tyler Dantes paired with Nathan Lewis and Alec Alfred to take gold in three relay events: 200m breaststroke, butterfly, and medley. Dantes also matched Andrew’s five individual gold medals, while Caden Calderon and Henri-Christian Theobalds delivered a critical win for Sharks in the 11-14 200m freestyle relay.
In the 15-and-over boys’ division, Noah Dorville, Malik Peter, and Shemar James led Sea Jays to first-place finishes in the 200m freestyle, breaststroke, and medley relays. The only boys’ relay win for Lightning Aquatics in this division came in the 200m butterfly, where Ethan Hazell, Aaron Charles, Khalil Maraj and Jayce Daniel crossed the finish line first to claim gold.
Beyond the team titles and individual medals, the carnival also made history with two new national age-group short-course records, both set by standout Sea Jays athletes. Sapphire Parks shaved nearly a third of a second off her own previous 11-12 girls 100m freestyle record, dropping her time from 1:02.25 to a new mark of 1:01.95. Tyler Dantes followed up his five individual gold medals by breaking a 2019 record held by Tristan Dorville in the 11-12 boys 50m backstroke, finishing the race in 29.90 seconds to beat the old record of 30.73 seconds.